Knowledge, Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Systems at HICSS

This paper presents an overview and history of the knowledge, innovation, and entrepreneurial systems (KIES) track and the knowledge and related systems research community at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). This community began as a task force that examined organizational memory in HICSS-27. It has since evolved into a mini-track, a research cluster, and, finally, a full research track that encompasses research knowledge, innovation, and entrepreneurial systems. In this paper, we acquaint knowledge system researchers with a research community that has leveraged HICSS to develop a rich history of high-quality scholastic inquiry in the knowledge system, knowledge management, innovation systems, entrepreneurial systems, organizational memory, and organizational learning research areas

A knowledge hub to enhance the learning processes of an industrial cluster

Industrial clusters have been defined as ?networks of production of strongly interdependent firms (including specialised suppliers), knowledge producing agents (universities, research institutes, engineering companies), institutions (brokers, consultants), linked to each other in a value adding production chain? (OECD Focus Group, 1999). The industrial clusters distinctive mode of production is specialisation, based on a sophisticated division of labour, that leads to interlinked activities and need for cooperation, with the consequent emergence of communities of practice (CoPs). CoPs are here conceived as groups of people and/or organisations bound together by shared expertise and propensity towards a joint work (Wenger and Suyden, 1999). Cooperation needs closeness for just-in-time delivery, for communication, for the exchange of knowledge, especially in its tacit form. Indeed the knowledge exchanges between the CoPs specialised actors, in geographical proximity, lead to spillovers and synergies. In the digital economy landscape, the use of collaborative technologies, such as shared repositories, chat rooms and videoconferences can, when appropriately used, have a positive impact on the development of the CoP exchanges process of codified knowledge. On the other end, systems for the individuals profile management, e-learning platforms and intelligent agents can trigger also some socialisation mechanisms of tacit knowledge. In this perspective, we have set-up a model of a Knowledge Hub (KH), driven by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT-driven), that enables the knowledge exchanges of a CoP. In order to present the model, the paper is organised in the following logical steps: - an overview of the most seminal and consolidated approaches to CoPs; - a description of the KH model, ICT-driven, conceived as a booster of the knowledge exchanges of a CoP, that adds to the economic benefits coming from geographical proximity, the advantages coming from organizational proximity, based on the ICTs; - a discussion of some preliminary results that we are obtaining during the implementation of the model.

The Importance of Clusters for Sustainable Innovation Processes: The Context of Small and Medium Sized Regions

The purpose of the current paper is to provide a critical state-of-the-art review of current research on clusters and its correlation to innovation dynamics in small and medium-sized regions. In particular, we focus on the systematization of the main concepts and theoretical insights that are tributary to the cluster overview in terms of its relevance for the sustainability of the innovation processes, knowledge production and diffusion, which take place inside small and medium-sized regions. The present working paper takes into account the initial studies on English industrial districts (in the nineteenth century), passing through the Italian industrial districts (in the 70s and 80s of the twentieth century), until the modern theories of business clusters and innovation systems. These frameworks constitute the basis of an approach to endogenous development, which gives a central role to the interaction between economic actors, the society and the institutions and to the identification, mobilization and combination of potential resources within a particular geographical area.Cluster; Innovation; Endogenous development; Territory.

Absorptive Capacity: Antecedents, Models and Outcomes

This chapter focuses on the gap between the speed of proliferation of theoretical and empirical contributions and the speed of accumulation of the acquired scientific knowledge regarding absorptive capacity. To contribute to narrowing this gap, we will in particular review the conceptual developments of the absorptive capacity construct. Based on the seminal contributions of Cohen & Levinthal (1989, 1990) we will provide a brief overview of the various conceptual attributes of this construct, like the definition, antecedents and consequences, and levels of analysis involved. Next, we will assess the refinements, extensions and reconceptualizations of this construct in the literature. Furthermore, from the perspective of viewing models as mediating instruments between theory and empirical phenomena (Morgan and Morrison, 1999), we will analyze efforts to build conceptual models. Finally, we will address the progress made, select key problems and we will formulate future research directions to improve the multilevel and transdisciplinary characteristics of absorptive capacity.innovation;absorptive capacity;knowledge

Behavioral Aspects of Organizational Learning and Adaptation

In this paper, I seek to understand the behavioral basis of higher organizational learning and adaption as a teleological dynamic equilibrium process to decipher the underlying psycho-physiological aspects of individual cognitive learning related to organizational adaption. Dynamics of cognitive learning has some differential paths within the neural circuitry which follows certain patterns that leads to individual as well as organized evolution in course of a learning process. I undertake a comparative analysis of human cognitive and behavioral changes and the active mechanisms underlying animal behavior and learning processes to understand the differential patterns of these adaptive changes in these two species. Cognitive behavioral learning processes have certain economic perspectives which help an individual to attain efficiency in workplace adaptation and in learning which however, the individual when being part of an alliance, ember positive influence on the society or organization as a whole. Comparatively, in primates, I review some empirical evidences drawn from chronological studies about cognitive behavioral learning process and adaptation as well as the presence of the capacity of making attributions about mental states, which exists in rudimentary form in chimpanzees and apes. Following this, I apply the outcomes of the findings on different aspects of human cognitive and adaptive behavioral learning-induced evolutionary changes and how human beings are able to exploit the presence of these additive advantages under cluster settings.Animal behavior, cognitive economics, motivational energy, neural adaptation, neuroscience, Organizational learning, organizational adaptation, teleological process

Managerial satisfaction with subsidiary performance; the influence of the parent MNE's capabilities and the subsidiary's environment

Multinational enterprise performance is one of the most researched topics in the strategic management literature over the last thirty years. Despite the proliferation of studies, the dispute over the relation between firms’ international investment activities and corporate performance has not yet reached a consensus. This paper’s contribution is threefold. First, we focus on entry by West European multinational enterprises into Central and East European countries. Second, we develop a multi-theory argument, combining insights from transaction cost, new institutional, behavioral, resource-based and international strategy theories. Third, we estimate the determinants of managerial satisfaction with subsidiary performance with questionnaire data for a sample of 198 subsidiaries.

The knowledge needs of innovating organisations

The sustainable management of innovation is perhaps the single most vital element of executive work in today's business environment. This has driven knowledge management theorists to revitalise interest in the concept of 'competency'. However, this theoretical domain continues to be fragmented by definitional debate. At a micro-level of analysis, Human Resources Management theorists have embraced the idea of managerial competencies, resulting in the elaboration of frameworks and standards of performance for the targeted development of individual knowledge. By contrast, at the macrolevel the Strategic Management literature has focussed on developing new concepts of competition and cooperation that emphasise organisational knowledge as the driver of strategic change. In this context, competence-based competition implies that competitive advantage is bestowed by an organisation's unique combination of core competencies. This definitional debate is a major obstacle to the development of an integrated perspective on competency and the knowledge needs of innovating organisations. This conceptual article asserts that, since innovation involves a learning process, it is necessary to develop process-based theory rather than the static categorisations that currently dominate thinking in this area. Drawing on theories from the field of learning, the article proposes a three-dimensional framework of knowledge-based competencies that are interlinked and meaningful across levels of analysis

Seeking Feedback on Learning for Change

{Excerpt} Feedback underpins organizational learning. To find the highest level of success in learning for change, feedback should be invited, analyzed in the most positive manner possible, and used to impact decision making. The rapidly changing—and, at times, excessively complex—nature of development work demands diverse competences from aid agencies such as the Asian Development Bank. In addition to technical knowledge and skills, they include no less than appreciating political economy; building relationships; reading and responding to complex organizational and social predicaments; and increasing capacity to contend with uncertainty, task-compromise, and deal with difference and diversity. The learning challenges that these demands present require the ability to work more reflectively in a turbulent practice environment. There is no alternative: to remain relevant and effective, an organization’s rate of learning must be at least equal to—but preferably greater than—the rate of change in the environment