Innovation, human capital and earning distribution: towards a dynamic life-cycle approach

Empirical anomalies in the dynamics of earnings following the emergence of new ICT technologies are not consistent with various re-elaborations of the human capital theory. The first part of the paper reviews critically this literature and highlights an important gap concerning the role of institutional infrastructures for the systematisation and diffusion of new knowledge. The dynamic life-cycle approach elaborated in the second part provides a coherent account of the evidence, and indicates interesting implications for innovation and educational policies.Innovation; Human Capital; Earning Distribution;

Innovation and skill dynamics: a life - cycle approach

This paper focuses on the complementary institutional and organizational adjustments that facilitate the routinization of technological opportunities. To address this issue we propose a life-cycle approach that accounts for the emergence, development and transformation of the conduits for the transmission of new knowledge and skills. While it is widely held that knowledge tends to get more organized as by-product of innovation, the purposeful absorption of practical know-how into formal education is another crucial, and arguably less analysed, intermediate step to bridge the beginning of the life-cycle, when new skills are closely tied to some novel technology, to later phases when the emergence of new disciplines and the diffusion of those skills elicit complementary developments in the technology. The paper connects themes that are central to the tangled policy discourse on skills impact innovation, namely: the institutional adjustments required to favour the re-absorption of skill mismatches; the systematization of knowledge underpinning the creation of new academic disciplines; and implications for dynamics of productivity and of the wage structure.

Survey and Systematization of Prescriptive Analytics Systems: Towards Archetypes from a Human-Machine-Collaboration Perspective

Prescriptive analytics systems (PAS) represent the most mature form of business analytics (BA), offering advanced decision support. However, current research predominantly focuses on technical facets while neglecting social-technical design aspects. A pluralist research methodology was employed to address this gap, starting with a systematic literature review of over 200 papers. We used these papers to derive a concept matrix of fundamental elements that guided the development of a taxonomy conceptualizing the interplay and collaboration between humans and machines in PAS-based decision-making processes. Based on this taxonomy, we identified four recurring PAS archetypes with salient design characteristics: Informative, executive, adaptive, and autonomous PAS. Our findings have important implications for the BA community, including the need to investigate design options for executive, adaptive, and autonomous PAS; the underrepresentation of the human perspective; the missing links to the broader organizational landscape; and the potential for interpretable machine learning and reinforcement learning in PAS

User producer interaction in context: a classification

Science, Technology and Innovation Studies show that intensified user producer interaction (UPI) increases chances for successful innovations, especially in the case of emerging technology. It is not always clear, however, what type of interaction is necessary in a particular context. This paper proposes a conceptualization of contexts in terms of three dimensions – the phase of technology development, the flexibility of the technology, and the heterogeneity of user populations – resulting in a classification scheme with eight different contextual situations. The paper identifies and classifies types of interaction, like demand articulation, interactive learning, learning by using and domestication. It appears that each contextual situation demands a different set of UPI types. To illustrate the potential value of the classification scheme, four examples of innovations with varying technological and user characteristics are explored: the refrigerator, clinical anaesthesia, video cassette recording, and the bicycle. For each example the relevant UPI types are discussed and it is shown how these types highlight certain activities and interactions during key events of innovation processes. Finally, some directions for further research are suggested alongside a number of comments on the utility of the classification

Approach for the monetary evaluation of process innovations in early innovation phases focusing on manufacturing and material costs

In early innovation phases, the monetary evaluation of process innovations is a challenge for companies due to a lack of data. However, an innovation evaluation is essential in an early innovation phase to ensure that process innovations deliver economic value added (EVA) in early innovation phases and to channel technology transfer expenditures in a goal-oriented manner. This paper presents an approach for a semi-quantitative procedure for the monetary evaluation of process innovations in the early innovation phase focusing on manufacturing and material costs. Exemplarily, the approach is applied to process innovations of the Collaborative Research Center 1368 on oxygen-free production. In order to ensure the net present value orientation within the innovation evaluation, the procedure developed is based on a driver tree of the EVA. To link value drivers of the EVA and innovation-driven factors influencing EVA, the EVA driver tree is further systematized with a focus on manufacturing and material costs using a literature-based impact model. Based on the last level of the impact model, a guideline for a semi-structured expert interview is developed. Using this interview guideline, data is collected in the form of innovation-driven influencing factors, which represent the input for the final monetary innovation evaluation. An adapted weighted scoring model is used to draw a semi-quantitative conclusion regarding the EVA achieved by the process innovation. The practical application of the approach developed to process innovations in oxygen-free production has shown that, in the context of three process innovations under consideration, their implementation with the aim of achieving an EVA through reduced manufacturing and material costs at the current innovation status is not effective. However, based on the impact model developed, corresponding levers can be identified to positively influence the EVA and thus also the industrialization of the process innovation. Finally, further necessary steps are identified to evolve the presented approach into a complete method for monetary innovation evaluation in early innovation phases

User producer interaction in context: A classification

Science, Technology and Innovation Studies show that intensified user producer interaction (UPI) increases chances for successful innovations, especially in the case of emerging technology. It is not always clear, however, what type of interaction is necessary in a particular context. This paper proposes a conceptualization of contexts in terms of three dimensions – the phase of technology development, the flexibility of the technology, and the heterogeneity of user populations – resulting in a classification scheme with eight different contextual situations. The paper identifies and classifies types of interaction, like demand articulation, interactive learning, learning by using and domestication. It appears that each contextual situation demands a different set of UPI types. To illustrate the potential value of the classification scheme, four examples of innovations with varying technological and user characteristics are explored: the refrigerator, clinical anaesthesia, video cassette recording, and the bicycle. For each example the relevant UPI types are discussed and it is shown how these types highlight certain activities and interactions during key events of innovation processes. Finally, some directions for further research are suggested alongside a number of comments on the utility of the classification.Innovation, users, interaction, learning, typology of UPI

Micro-Logistical Aspects of Manufacturing Enterprises in Supply Chain

Manufacturing companies are the crucial link in a supply chain; they shape goods directly as operational subject. Special consideration has been taken of the micro logistics area of these enterprises and the significance that the area plays in the formation of the chain. Production of goods is associated with managing multiple processes, both manufacturing and logistics, and therefore an important factor determining the proper functioning of an enterprises is their relative connection and systematization