Diffusion Of Technical Knowledge Research Articles

Organizational Learning and Search Track: Scientific and Technical Knowledge: Search, Diffusion, and Impact

Both innovation and entrepreneurship crucially rely on scientific and technical knowledge. Scientific and engineering principles can be applied to processes of creative search to resolve technical problems, increase useful innovation, and create new business opportunities. Yet, recent years have seen dramatic changes in how knowledge is generated and diffused, with still limited evidence on how these changes are impacting innovation. The emergence of big data and computational capabilities might provide “automated” ways to generate knowledge in the form of predictive statements. What are their effects on the innovation search process and on the rate and the direction of technical change? Furthermore, these trends are magnified by the diffusion of the internet and digital modes of exchanging information. How important is the human component for the diffusion of knowledge? Is the diffusion and impact of knowledge still dependent on localized interactions, despite the widespread availability of ICT and the internet? This panel symposium will assemble four papers on the topics of search, diffusion, and impact of technical knowledge. It will discuss 1) the role of data in the search for innovation, 2) the directional consequences of data availability on the accumulation and diffusion of technical knowledge, and 3) the localization of knowledge and how physical proximity of scientists and inventors influence knowledge flows and company creation. These questions are important to craft strategy processes for managers and the allocation of resources for policymakers.

The intellectual scales of environment: Agricultural pests and public sphere in 19th century Portugal

Studies and research on biological invasions have acquired increasing attention in environmental history. However, the acknowledgement of certain specific cultural markers –such as the press– has been hitherto limited in such works. In light of this, this paper seeks to evaluate the importance of regional Portuguese newspapers in studying plant pests and agricultural diseases through a substantial corpus of publications produced between the 1850s and 1910s. This article looks at three newspapers Jornal de Penafiel (1890-1914), the Damião de Goes (1886-1914) and the O Elvense (1880-1904) in order to establish the informative potential gleaned from these types of sources in different regions in the north, centre and south Portugal respectively. The results highlight the importance of vine diseases (phylloxera, mildium, oidium) in the examined journalistic narratives. Nevertheless, other pests (potato blight, chestnut blight, brown rot) or bioinvaders (locust) were also important parts of these discourses. The results of this research reveals just how closely directed periodical press and diffusion of technical knowledge were in the strategies and attitudes against agricultural pests, showing that science was incorporated into the relationship between State and the rural communities.

Development aid and the diffusion of technology: Improved cookstoves in Kenya and Rwanda

This paper analyses the role of official development assistance (ODA) in the evolution of Technological Innovation Systems (TISs) of improved cookstoves in Kenya and Rwanda. Functionally balanced TISs are central to the diffusion of new technologies and practices. We find that ODA has significantly influenced major innovation activities related to improved cookstoves in both Kenya and Rwanda over the last 30 years. However, donors’ funding has been focused mainly on the development and diffusion of technical knowledge. We find that this pattern of ODA support has not fostered balanced and effective Technology Innovation Systems, and that this has contributed to the failure to achieve widespread diffusion of improved cookstoves. We develop a quasi-evolutionary model for the long-term and systematic ODA support of innovation systems to build sustainable renewable energy TISs in developing countries.

Foreign-origin inventors in the USA: testing for diaspora and brain gain effects

We assess the role of ethnic ties in the diffusion of technical knowledge using a database of patents filed by US-resident inventors of foreign origin, identified by name analysis. We consider 10 leading source countries, both Asian and European, of highly skilled migration to the USA and test whether foreign inventors’ patents are disproportionately cited by (i) co-ethnic migrants (‘diaspora’ effect), and (ii) inventors residing in their country of origin (‘brain gain’ effect). We find evidence of the diaspora effect for the Asian but not the European countries, with the exception of Russia. A diaspora effect does not necessarily translate into a brain gain effect, most notably for India where no such effect is detected. Neither does a brain gain effect occur solely in conjunction with a diaspora effect. Overall, diaspora and brain gain effects carry less weight than other channels of knowledge transmission, most notably co-invention networks and multinational companies.

Industrial influences on R&D transfer to China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to open a new research frontier concerning industry factors influencing R&D transfer to emerging markets within Western multinational companies (MNCs).Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a framework based on knowledge transfer, knowledge creation, and innovation theory, which is illustrated in two cases from globally leading MNCs from different industries and technological fields which have established R&D units in China. It addresses the issue of industrial influences on R&D transfer to emerging markets, and the importance of complementary assets for innovation performance.FindingsThe framework and empirical research suggest that R&D transfer to new R&D units in emerging markets is less challenging for companies within industries characterized by slow technological development. This is due to dynamics, which result in codification and diffusion of technical knowledge, whereby it is easier to transfer and absorb. When the transformation from exploration to exploitation of knowledge is simple rather than complex within an industry, R&D transfer is less challenging. Leverage of local complementary assets nurtures reverse R&D knowledge transfer – positively impacting innovation performance.Originality/valueThe paper addresses the gap in knowledge transfer theory concerning industrial R&D transfer differences. The paper provides a framework for innovation related industrial contingencies on R&D transfer concerning emerging markets, and it advances the argument that complementary assets are important for R&D in emerging markets. Implications for management in China are outlined. The term captive knowledge transfer is coined.

Agricultural Productivity Changes Induced by the Sloping Land Conversion Program: An Analysis of Wuqi County in the Loess Plateau Region

This paper examines the agricultural productivity change induced by the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) using the Malmquist index method and household data collected from Wuqi. We find that during the period of 1998-2004, the total factor productivity (TFP) grew by 15.8%. While numerous households suffered a TFP decline, the majority of them experienced a large gain. By decomposing the TFP, we further show that its increase is due exclusively to the improvement of technical efficiency rather than to technological change. To validate these findings and put them in perspective, we also estimated the TFP change with county-level aggregate data. It is revealed that driven by technological change and scale efficiency, the TFP grew slightly during the period of 1992-1998. Because of the tremendous cropland reduction and production mode shift caused by implementing the SLCP, the TFP declined substantially during the first three years of the program; due to continued improvement of technical efficiency; however, its growth accelerated later. Altogether, our evidence consistently suggests that implementing the SLCP has contributed to the agricultural TFP growth in the longer term and that the efficiency improvement has resulted mainly from the increased public expenditures for extension services and diffusion of technical knowledge. Wuqi's experience proves that it is possible to achieve environmental conservation and increase productivity simultaneously, even when facing a cropland reduction and production mode alternation.

Perspectives on evolutionary theory

In the light of the SPRU tradition and the promises of evolutionary theories, this outlines some promising directions for an on-going research programme. These include the scientific status of evolutionary models themselves, and the processes of co-evolution between a techno-economic domain and the institutions which influence the generation and diffusion of technical knowledge. The normative consequences are considered in terms of technological, industrial and broader macroeconomic policies.

The Central Argentine Railway and the Economic Development of Argentina, 1854–1881

IT has long been obvious that the diffusion of technical knowledge has been closely identified with the rapid economic growth characteristic of the nineteenth century. Perhaps less appreciated is that technical innovation in the nineteenth century generally occurred in response to economic demands. Indeed, technological change is usually integral to the everyday processes of production and consumption. expresses something not adventitious to a nation's economic life but an inherent part of it.' Transportation innovation was crucial to Argentine economic growth in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Once constructed, railroads provided an unmatched stimulus to production, created a national market, helped to shape the export orientation of the economy, and promoted the economic and political integration of the nation. It is the contention of this paper that the railroads not only contributed to Argentine economic growth but also were built in response to clearly discerned market patterns and economic opportunity. Transportation innovation, in short, was intimately linked to economic demand. The Central Argentine Railway, constructed between Rosario and C0rdoba in the 1860s, provides an excellent example of this relationship. Analysis of the Central's early years also provides a test of a variant but similar theme-the railroad created demand and was the prime mover in economic development. As Wilfrid Latham observed in 1866, enterprise and industry, capital and civilization, peace and