Economic Analysis of Knowledge: The History of Thought and the Central Themes

Following the development of knowledge economies, there has been a rapid expansion of economic analysis of knowledge, both in the context of technological knowledge in particular and the decision theory in general. This paper surveys this literature by identifying the main themes and contributions and outlines the future prospects of the discipline. The wide scope of knowledge related questions in terms of applicability and alternative approaches has led to the fragmentation of research. Nevertheless, one can identify a continuing tradition which analyses various aspects of the generation, dissemination and use of knowledge in the economy

National Innovation Systems—Analytical Concept and Development Tool

The term national system of innovation has been around for more than 20 years and today it has become widely spread among policy makers as well as among scholars all over the world. This paper takes stock and looks ahead from a somewhat personal point of view. It also gives some insight into how and why the concept came about. The paper argues that a key to progress is to get a better understanding of knowledge and learning as the basis for innovation and to understand how different modes of innovation complement each other and find support in the specific national context. A core of the innovation system is defined and it is illustrated that it is necessary both to understand micro-behaviour in the core and understand “the wider setting” within which the core operates. Concepts used in organization theory referring to fit and misfit may be used to enrich the understanding of the performance of innovation systems. At the end of the paper I discuss some further developments needed to make the concept relevant and applicable to developing countries. Here special attention is given to institutions and capabilities supporting learning. I point to the need to give more emphasis to the distribution of power, to institution building and to the openness of innovation systems.Innovation system, economic theory, public policy, economic development,

Accounting for Creativity in the European Union: A multi-level analysis of individual competence, labour market structure, and systems of education and training

Some workplaces offer employees opportunities to creatively use their own ideas while engaged in learning and problem-solving activity without much interference from managers and bosses. In this paper we analyse the preconditions for creative work. Using multilevel logistic modelling we examine what characteristics of the individual, the organisation of work and the national institutional context promote creative work. At the national level we focus on the effects of national education and training systems and labour markets. The analysis demonstrates, not surprisingly, that individuals with higher education and a certain amount of work experience are more likely to have creative jobs. It also shows that creative jobs are more likely at workplaces where managers support employees and where work is organised to promote knowledge diversity. In terms of international differences, we find that creative work tends to be more developed in Scandinavian countries than in the South and East of Europe. Interestingly, we find significant positive relations between the likelihood of creativity at work, on the one hand, and the development of broad competence-based systems of education and labour market flexicurity, on the other. This implies that policy attempts to attract 'the creative class' as it has been defined by Richard Florida through promoting diversity should at the national level be combined with the institutional reform of Europe's education systems and labour markets. Such policies may extend the category of creative employees to include significant parts of what Florida defines as 'the working class'. Copyright The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.

How Europe's economies learn: a comparison of work organization and innovation mode for the EU-15

This article explores the link between the organization of work and innovation by developing national aggregate indicators for the EU member states of organizational forms and innovation modes (how firms innovate). The organizational indicators are constructed from the Third European Survey of Working Conditions results for 8081 salaried employees in 2000. The innovation mode indicators are calculated using the results of the third Community Innovation Survey (CIS-3) for innovation activities between 1998 and 2000. The analysis shows that in nations where work is organized to support high levels of discretion in solving complex problems firms tend to be more active in terms of innovations developed through their in-house creative efforts. In countries where learning and problem solving on the job are more constrained, and little discretion is left to the employee, firms tend to engage in a supplier-dominated innovation strategy. Their technological renewal depends more on the absorption of innovations developed elsewhere. These patterns remain when we divide the economies into manufacturing and services. Copyright 2007 , Oxford University Press.

Organizational learning and systems of labor market regulation in Europe

This article establishes a link between international differences in the organization of work and modes of regulation of labor markets within Europe. The article operates with four forms of work organization (discretionary learning, lean production, Taylorism, and simple or traditional). Through a factor analysis three dimensions of national labor market systems (flexible security, passive security, and job support) are defined. Using a multi-level logistic regression model that takes into account both characteristics of individuals and of national labor market systems it is shown that there is a significant positive correlation between flexible security and the prevalence of discretionary learning. On this basis we point to an extension of flexible security in Europe's labor markets as an adequate response to the current crisis. Copyright 2010 The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.