To hoard or to share?: strategic management of knowledge and ICTS in complex economic systems

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to achieve a better understanding of the effects of strategic decisions related to the management of knowledge taken by organizations in complex economic systems. These effects are seen in the long term performance of organizations in the system choosing different strategic paths. As knowledge-related processes make intensive use of ICTs, the influence of the degree of development of these technologies is taken into account. Design/methodology: An agent-based simulation model, ImbySim, based in the I-Space conceptual framework, is used to represent the evolution of a group of knowledge-intensive organizations located in a given geographic space. Those organizations engage, among others, in processes of creation and transfer of knowledge assets. Organizations show different levels of performance, which may be related to their knowledge-related strategic choices. The main knowledge-related strategies available for the agents are, on one side, sharing or hoarding knowledge and, on the other side, structuring or de-structuring knowledge. Findings: The results of the simulation suggest that it is not adequate to adopt an 'always sharing' or 'always hoarding' strategy. The hoarding or sharing of knowledge assets need to be applied in a discriminating way depending on the specific asset or the situation of the organization. Also, different levels of development of ICTs favour different strategic choices concerning the adequate structuring of knowledge assets and the degree of knowledge sharing. In general terms, ICT development calls for more sharing and more structuring of knowledge. Practical implications: The hypotheses developed from this research may be very useful, once empirically tested, for strategic planning. Policy makers in charge of complex economic systems and firms and institutions present in them may benefit from the insights obtained and define their strategic moves according to them. Originality/value: From the simulations, a number of empirically testable hypotheses have been extracted. Should these hypotheses get empirically corroborated, they would challenge a certain body of theorising—associated with organizational ecology and organizational demography—thus demonstrating the fruitfulness of the simulation approach to complex knowledge-based problems in the field of strategyPeer Reviewe

La información como bien económico: reflexiones sobre la crisis financiera de 2008

Information is a key economic resource. Its proper conceptualization, as well as its practical integration in socioeconomic environment, poses several questions and follows general premises. These are reviewed, and once this framework is established it is illustrated with an informational analysis of the 2008 financial crisis, including remarks on changes in the financial system information environment that affected stakeholders’ information behaviour and decision making

Collaboration networks in big science: The ATLAS experiment at CERN

Actualmente los grandes experimentos científicos necesitan una gran organización en la que participan cientos de investigadores de varias instituciones. Un aspecto interesante, aunque poco estudiado, de este nuevo tipo de iniciativas científicas es la forma que toma la colaboración interna entre los miembros de las instituciones participantes. En este trabajo se investiga este tema en uno de los ejemplos más conocidos de big science: el experimento ATLAS del CERN. Mediante la aplicación de varias técnicas de análisis de redes a información proveniente de bases de datos internas del CERN, se identifican varios patrones de colaboración dentro del experimento. Se comprueba, por una parte, el alto nivel de colaboración entre las instituciones representadas en ATLAS, superior al observado usualmente en el campo de la física, y se identifican los actores principales en la red de colaboración. Por otra parte, se observa que la red de colaboración no sigue un patrón “libre de escala” o de “ley de potencia”, al contrario de lo que ocurre en otras redes de colaboración estudiadas en física y en otros campos. Finalmente, se advierte que la distancia geográfica entre dos instituciones no parece tener ningún efecto en la probabilidad de establecer relaciones de colaboración, contrastando también con lo que ocurre en otros tipos de redes de colaboración.AbstractNowadays big scientific experiments require large organizations and hundreds of researchers who participate from several institutions. An interesting, yet rarely studied aspect of this new kind of scientific enterprise is the internal collaboration between the members of the participating institutions. Here we assess this matter in one of the most well-known examples of big science: the ATLAS experiment at CERN. Applying different network analysis techniques to data from internal CERN databases, we have identified several collaboration patterns in the experiment. We observe, on the one hand, the high level of collaboration between the institutions represented in, higher than the average in the field of physics, and we identify the key institutions in the collaboration network. On the other hand, we notice that the collaboration network does not follow a scale-free or power-law model, contrary to what happens in other studied collaboration networks in physics and other areas. Finally, we observe that geographic distance between two institutions does not seem to affect the probability of establishing collaboration relationships, in contrast also to what happens in other kinds of collaboration networks

Why Teachers should Consider User Experience within Learning Management Systems: A Community of Inquiry Approach During COVID-19 Containment Measures

Community of Inquiry (CoI) has been used noticeably to research and practice online and blended education, and in such contexts the Learning Management System (LMS) can profoundly affect learners’ performances. Nevertheless, the choice of the most appropriate digital environment often leaves aside the user experience. A review of the available literature shows that usability has not been frequently investigated within the CoI, hence a bibliometric network analysis has been conducted to detect this feature in the research niche. By introducing the concept of affordance, it is possible to recognize the pre-existing status to Social and Cognitive Presence as qualities nested in the digital environment but capable to manifest only when learners act. Following an academic survey carried out during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy, Teaching Presence was examined within a Moodle-based university environment. Findings suggest that instructors should acknowledge educational and social affordances to incorporate them into instructional design

10 Strategic Considerations for the Management of Open Research Data

Open Science is one of the main challenges that researchers have to cope with, not only for their methodological involvement, but also for the new paradigm that could be generated. This means that in a process of full transformation of the research cycle, researchers should consider multiple elements in a global approach, as well as technical aspects. From Maredata, the Spanish network on open research data, we propose a series of strategic considerations for the research groups. The aim of these considerations is to stimulate the reflection to the researchers on the advantages of the openness of research data and to transform the change into an opportunity to improve their academic position, as well as the improvement in research. At the same time, it is convenient to consider the profit of accessing the open data of the whole scientific community. At this time, an asymmetrical adaptation is perceived by disciplines and research groups

Information as an economic good: some thoughts on the 2008 financial crisis

Information is a key economic resource. Its proper conceptualization, as well as its practical integration in socioeconomic environment, poses several questions and follows general premises. These are reviewed, and once this framework is estab lished it is illustrated with an informational analysis of the 2008 financial crisis, including remarks on changes in the financial system information environment that affected stakeholders’ information behaviour and decision making

Mobilised opinion recovery and analysis for social climate research

Mobilised opinion and social media have become a valuable source of information for organisations and individuals in operational and strategic decision making processes, such as marketing campaigns, product monitoring and development, search for new markets or the improvement of customer relations. The emergence of social media monitoring companies has brought a new job market for information professionals, to the extent that this information has to be collected and processed, and new automated monitoring systems have to be developed. This article outlines a process of recovery and treatment of mobilised opinion on the internet as a source for social climate analysis by organisations. The specific characteristics and problems of this type of opinion are highlighted, which points to the need for the participation of human agents in the development of the process

Principales parámetros para el estudio de la colaboración científica en Big Science

In several scientific disciplines research has shifted from experiments of a reduced scale to large and complex collaborations. Many recent scientific achievements like the human genome sequencing or the discovery of the Higgs boson have taken place within the “big science” paradigm. The study of scientific collaboration needs to take into account all the diverse factors that have an influence on it. In the case of big science experiments, some of those aspects are particularly important: number of institutions involved, cultural differences, diversity of spaces and infrastructures or the conceptualization of research problems. By considering these specific factors we present a set of parameters for the analysis of scientific collaboration in big science projects. The utility of these parameters is illustrated through a comparative study of two large big science projects: the ATLAS experiment and the Human Genome Project.En varias áreas de la ciencia se ha pasado de trabajar en experimentos reducidos a participar en grandes y complejas colaboraciones. Muchos de los grandes avances científicos recientes como la secuenciación del genoma humano o el descubrimiento del bosón de Higgs se enmarcan en el paradigma denominado big science. El estudio de la colaboración científica debe tener en cuenta los factores de todo tipo que influyen en dicha colaboración. Los experimentos de big science inciden especialmente en algunos de estos aspectos: volumen de instituciones implicadas, diferencias culturales, diversidad de espacios e infraestructuras o la propia conceptualización del problema de investigación. Atendiendo a estas particularidades, en este trabajo presentamos un conjunto de parámetros para el análisis de la colaboración científica en proyectos big science. Ilustramos la utilidad de esos parámetros mediante un estudio comparativo de dos grandes proyectos de big science: el experimento ATLAS y el Proyecto Genoma Humano

10 Strategic Considerations for the Management of Open Research Data

Open Science is one of the main challenges that researchers have to cope with, not only for their methodological involvement, but also for the new paradigm that could be generated. This means that in a process of full transformation of the research cycle, researchers should consider multiple elements in a global approach, as well as technical aspects. From Maredata, the Spanish network on open research data, we propose a series of strategic considerations for the research groups. The aim of these considerations is to stimulate the reflection to the researchers on the advantages of the openness of research data and to transform the change into an opportunity to improve their academic position, as well as the improvement in research. At the same time, it is convenient to consider the profit of accessing the open data of the whole scientific community. At this time, an asymmetrical adaptation is perceived by disciplines and research groups