Knowledge Specialisation and the Organisation of Competencies.

This paper presents a method by which patent statistics can be used to study the organisation of competencies within firm. We argue that knowledge is heterogeneous because it refers to scientific disciplines and technologies. One must therefore account for how technologies relate to one another -what we call the organisation of competencies. Patents are used to develop a methodological framework allowing one to grasp technological relatedness within firms. We then propose a series of illustrations showing how patent statistics can be used to study inter-firm heterogeneity and the relationship between the organisation of knowledge and economic performance at the firm level.Patent;Knowledge;Organization;Heterogeneity;Coherence;Brevets;connaissances;organisation;Hétérogénéité;cohérence;

Regional alignement and productivity growth

We propose the concept of regional alignment to suggest that synergistic relations among the scientific expertise, technological specialization and industry composition of regions affect regional productivity growth. In this paper, we test an extended conditional β-convergence model using data on 94 French departments (NUTS3) for the period 2001-2011. Our results indicate that a conditional β-convergence is associated with a σ-divergence process in the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of French regions. This process is strongly affected by the level of regional alignment. Indeed, we find evidence that regional alignment both directly and indirectly influences regional productivity growth. The indirect effect of regional alignment materializes through its leverage on R&D investment, which is one of the most important drivers of productivity growth. Moreover, using a heterogeneous coefficients model, we show that the positive effect of regional alignment on TFP growth increases with the industrial diversity of regions, which suggests that regional alignment increases the value of Jacobs externalities more than Marshall-ArrowRomer (MAR) externalities. KE

Customer Interaction and Innovation in Hybrid Offerings:Investigating Moderation and Mediation Effects for Goods and Services Innovation

Hybrid offerings are bundles of goods and services offerings provided by the same firm. Bundling value offerings affects how firms innovate, interact with customers, and customize their goods and services. However, it remains unclear how customer interaction might drive the innovation performance of various bundled components. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of customer interactions and service customization on both goods and services innovations in a hybrid offering context, using a unique data set of 146 information technology and manufacturing firms. Customer interaction appears beneficial to both goods and services innovation in a hybrid offerings context, but service customization has different direct effects on goods versus services innovation. As a potential mediator, customer knowledge mobilization resources exert different effects on the goods and services elements of hybrid offerings. Furthermore, for high-interaction customers, medium levels of technical modularity lead to most favorable innovation outcomes for services innovation. The results thus suggest that providers of hybrid offerings should foster customer interactions, to drive the innovation performance of the good and service components, while still making sure to implement service customization strategies. These findings have notable implications for service innovation research

Apprentissage, coordination et organisation de l'industrie - Une perspective cognitive

[eng] This article aims at analysing co-ordi-nation processes taking into account that the cognitive structures of agents are heterogeneous. Then, analysis has to focus on individual and collective learning, on the way knowiedge is created, transferred and organised. On this basis, we show that the organisation of activities is strongly related to the specificity of the learning process required to co-ordinate on the one hand and on the functional level of knowiedge implemented on the other hand. This perspective allows us to describe the correlation between the evolution of knowiedge systems and the dynamics of the industry. [fre] Cet article a pour but d'étudier les processus de coordination en prenant en considération l'hétérogénéité des structures cognitives des agents. Dès lors, l'analyse se concentre sur la façon dont les connaissances sont créées, transmises et organisées. Sur cette base, nous montrons que les activités s'organisent relativement à la spécificité des processus d'apprentissage nécessaires à la coordination d'une part, et au niveau fonctionnel des connaissances mises en œuvre d'autre part. Cette grille de lecture nous permet de décrire la corrélation entre l'évolution des systèmes de connaissances et la dynamique des industries.

Introduction

Dibiaggio Ludovic. Introduction. In: Revue d'économie industrielle, vol. 88, 2e trimestre 1999. Économie de la connaissance, sous la direction de Ludovic Dibiaggio. pp. 11-22

Introduction

Dibiaggio Ludovic. Introduction. In: Revue d'économie industrielle, vol. 88, 2e trimestre 1999. Économie de la connaissance, sous la direction de Ludovic Dibiaggio. pp. 11-22

Design complexity, vertical disintegration and knowledge organization in the semiconductor industry

This article examines the advantages and drawbacks of internal knowledge integration versus collaborative outsourcing as two polar modes of governance in the design of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Increasing technological complexity, miniaturization and the generalization of markets for technology have induced higher integration constraints for designers. The pace of innovation and frequent changes in design rules require a tightly controlled design process. As a consequence, knowledge integrators must develop expertise beyond the scope of their domain of activity if they are to ascertain the overall efficiency of systems. We find that although internalization of knowledge integration reduces coordination and agency-related costs, the involvement of partner firms in upstream design phases facilitates knowledge sharing and improves the coordination of innovation in modules. The analysis of the evolution of the ASICs industry shows that while large system integrators remain the dominant players, specialist firms are gaining market shares and do not hesitate to embark on the design of leading-edge systems. This result may simply reveal the increasing value of component knowledge in a disaggregated value chain. However, relying on a comparative case study of two similar development processes (one with each of the knowledge integration approaches) we confirm the strength of decentralized modes of governance on the condition that partner firms engage in a long-term relationship. Copyright 2007 , Oxford University Press.

Cognitive perspectives in economics

Learning, Cognition, Coordination, Rationality, Hermeneutics,

Patents Statistics, Knowledge Specialisation and the Organisation of Competencies

[fre] Cet article présente une méthode d'analyse statistique permettant d'étudier l'organisation des connaissances de la firme à partir de données de brevets. Nous partons de l'idée que les connaissances sont hétérogènes en ce qu'elles sont liées à des disciplines scientifiques et technologiques différentes. Dès lors, en utilisant les informations fournies par les données de brevets, on peut considérer les relations particulières entre technologies comme révélateurs de l'organisation des bases de connaissances. En nous appuyant sur quelques cas illustratifs, nous montrons que cette méthode permet de mettre en lumière d'une part l'hétérogénéité des bases de connaissances des firmes d'un même secteur et d'autre part l'impact significatif du mode d'organisation des connaissances sur la performance des entreprises. [eng] This paper presents a method by which patent statistics can be used to study the organisation of competencies within firm. We argue that knowledge is heterogeneous because it refers to scientific disciplines and technologies. One must therefore account for how technologies relate to one another -what we call the organisation of competencies. Patents are used to develop a methodological framework allowing one to grasp technological relatedness within firms. We then propose a series of illustrations showing how patent statistics can be used to study inter-firm heterogeneity and the relationship between the organisation of knowledge and economic performance at the firm level.