Signaling, spillover and learning effects of knowledge flows on division performance within related diversified firms

This study addresses the performance consequences of knowledge transfer within related diversified firms by distinguishing between knowledge outflows and knowledge inflows at the business division level. Questionnaire data from a sample of 118 business divisions were analyzed using stepwise linear regression. The results from a three-effect model for the analysis of knowledge transfer indicate that knowledge outflow improves division performance, while knowledge inflow damages it when absorptive capacity is weak. The overall effect of knowledge transfer is therefore beneficial with the exception of the cases of receiving divisions with low levels of absorptive capacity. These results indicate that knowledge transfer contributes to overall corporate performance, since knowledge outflow impacts positively on division performance in all cases and knowledge inflow impacts negatively on division performance only in some cases. Setting aside the obvious task of promoting knowledge transfer within the firm, one important concern for corporate officers would be to prevent situations in which a division lacks the absorptive capacity to play its role within a corporate network. This work contributes to existent literature by disentangling the effects of knowledge transfer according to different theoretical perspectives, and it provides an empirical examination in a setting which is intensive in knowledge transference, as is that of business divisions from related diversified firms

Intra-network knowledge roles and division performance in multi-business firms

Multi-business firms are distributed knowledge systems in which business units are extensively involved in internal knowledge transfer processes. Business units play different roles within their respective corporate knowledge networks as knowledge providers, knowledge receivers, both or neither. This study deals with the performance consequences of business units that adopt varying knowledge roles within the internal multi-business network. Survey data from a sample of 225 business divisions were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of covariance. Results indicate that divisions which occupy knowledge roles that reveal the possession of unique knowledge (knowledge signaling) or guarantee the accumulation of new knowledge (knowledge learning) outperform those divisions that have access to spilled knowledge (knowledge depreciation) or have no access to any kind of knowledge (knowledge insulation). Four knowledge roles are distinguished according to the extent to which a business division provides the rest of the corporation with knowledge or receives knowledge from the rest of the corporation, thus exploring the issue of internal knowledge transfer from an integrated perspective that takes the directionality of knowledge flows and the position within the knowledge network into account. This study contributes to existent research on knowledge transfer and performance outcomes by demonstrating the usefulness of the knowledge role as an integrating concept within this literature. It also extends the four-role framework to the prescriptive domain and tests its normative implications in an intensive internal knowledge transfer setting which has to date gone relatively unnoticed, as is that of multi-business firms

A resource-based analysis of realized knowledge relatedness in diversified firms

The competitiveness of related diversified firms depends upon their ability to exploit knowledge relatedness by using the internal knowledge transfer processes within the organizational network. However, most existing studies deal with potential knowledge relatedness at the corporate level, rather than focusing on realized knowledge flows among divisions at the business unit level. Little is consequently known about the very essence of related diversifiers, i.e., the management of knowledge flows within the corporate knowledge network. This study therefore attempts to bridge this research gap by distinguishing four knowledge roles within related firms and analyzing their relative performance outcomes. Based on a sample of 116 product divisions, results indicate that divisions playing a knowledge provider role outperform those that not play that role, thus signaling unique resource endowments in the formers. On the contrary, those divisions which plays a knowledge receiving role do not benefit from the internal accumulation of resources

Análisis del abandono universitario en la universidad de castilla-la mancha: resultados del proyecto Alfa Guía

La Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) formó parte como socio del proyecto ALFA-GUÍA (Gestión Universitaria Integral del Abandono). En este proyecto, financiado por la Unión Europea, participaron 14 universidades latino americanas y 6 europeas. El objetivo de este proyecto era dar un salto cualitativo en el enfoque y en los medios para reducir los efectos negativos de la baja tasa de éxito en el Sistema Educativo debido al abandono. La UCLM empezó a implantar los Grados adaptados al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior en el curso 2009-2010 en el primer curso de éstos. Ésta fue precisamente la cohorte analizada dentro del marco del proyecto. Para ello en primer lugar se calculan los alumnos que habiéndose matriculado en el primer curso de alguno de los títulos universitarios oficiales en la UCLM en el curso 2009-2010 no realizó matrícula en la UCLM en ninguno de los tres cursos siguientes, lo cual se entiende como abandono universitario. Esta cifra fue de 1.035 alumnos, lo cual supone un 18% sobre los alumnos matriculados en primer curso en esa cohorte en la UCLM (5.856). Para ahondar en los determinantes del abandono universitario se obtuvo respuesta de 1.198 alumnos a una encuesta en la que se preguntaban aspectos socioeconómicos y académicos. Hay que destacar que aunque la encuesta no es un muestreo aleatorio simple, sí se dispone de información de 559 alumnos que abandonaron la UCLM. Así, en primer lugar se analiza usando gráficos de kernel la diferente distribución de notas de entrada entre los que abandonaron y entre los que no lo hicieron para cada una de las ramas de enseñanza. Posteriormente, se estima un modelo probit para conocer los determinantes del abandono

University knowledge, open innovation and technological capital in spanish science parks: research revealing or technology selling?

This study investigates the connection between university research and technological capital developed by science park firms in order to elucidate whether the causal linkage is owing to non-pecuniary research spillovers or pecuniary technology transfer activities. Two publicly available surveys, one dealing with the research and transfer activities of 45 Spanish universities and another with the patenting activities of 44 Spanish science parks, are matched in such a way that hypotheses can be tested using regression analysis. The patenting performance of science park firms is positively related to the competitive RD projects undertaken by the universities to which they are affiliated and negatively related to the technology transfer activities carried out by those universities. These findings suggest that the scientific knowledge produced by universities principally contributes to private technology-based firms technological capital through non-pecuniary research spillovers, whereas the pecuniary technology transfer agreements remain uncertain or may even prove to be detrimental. Firms that are considering locating or remaining in a university-affiliated science park should be aware that the university?s pecuniary orientation when managing its intellectual capital may become a barrier as regards the firm filling its technological capital shortages. From a university administrator perspective, the complementary or substitute role of technology transfer offices vis-à-vis science parks should be considered in the light of the selling or revealing approach adopted by the university in order to commercialize and diffuse potential inventions. This study contributes to existing literature by shedding light on the causal linkage between university research and firm innovation, obtaining evidence in favor of an upstream, non-pecuniary and revealing role of universities in support of the accumulation of technological capital amongst science parks tenant firms

Creativity, organizational knowledge, and the power of dreams

This study addresses the question of how dreams might improve organizational creativity in real-world situations. Both Freudian and Jungian perspectives are considered in a study that seeks to explore whether the personal and the collective unconscious can be put to the service of high-tech companies. A multiple case study methodology based on 10 projects from two companies shed light on the role that intrinsic motivation (personal unconscious) and organizational ideals (collective unconscious) play in the dreaming activity of the project managers and the resulting overall creativity outcomes of the corresponding projects. With respect to the management of the personal unconscious, the findings indicate that intrinsic motivation increases the emotional tone of dreams, which in turn, contributes to overall project creativity. A more intrinsically motivated project manager is an emotional dreamer which is able to contribute to the project creativity with innovative solutions derived from his/her dreams. With regard to the management of the collective unconscious, the study shows that project managers organize their project members around some organizational ideals (hierarchy, group, team, and clan) that may fuel or hamper project creativity outcomes, thus conditioning the use of the collective unconscious. Specifically, the project managers in charge of teams and clans are more creative and emotional dreamers than those in charge of hierarchies and groups. This study contributes to the knowledge of the role that elusive antecedents, such as dreams, might play in organizational creativity, innovation, and change. Instead of discussing about dreams in an abstract manner, the study focuses on specific mechanisms (intrinsic motivation and organizational ideals) under the control of senior managers