Knowledge Endowments Research Articles

Does board knowledge matter for ESG performance in the European banking industry?

AbstractThis study investigates the influence of the knowledge endowment of directors on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in the banking industry. Applying the generalized method of moments (GMM) two‐step analysis, we analyzed a sample of 115 banks listed in Europe between 2014 and 2022. Building on the Resource Based View and Resource Dependence Theory, we find empirical evidence that board knowledge in terms of cultural, industrial, and financial background affects ESG performance in the banking industry, providing several contributions to the extant knowledge management and corporate governance literature. The research is intended to stimulate the development of practical knowledge management strategies inside companies to improve directors' decision‐making toward corporate social responsibility‐oriented initiatives.

PROMOTING A SUSTAINABLE LOW-CARBON COMMUNITY THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY'S KNOWLEDGE ENDOWMENT PROJECT FOR MOSQUE

Climate change has emerged as a critical global concern, adversely affecting energy consumption and community living environments. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions primarily contribute to global warming and climate change, necessitating increased awareness and adoption of low-carbon lifestyles among communities at a micro-scale. While addressing this growing concern, a collaborative effort involving ten university researchers, incorporating faculty members from the built environment department, professional landscape architects, the Masjid As-Siddiq congregation, and related agencies, culminated in the development of the Recycle Edible Garden (REG) as a knowledge endowment project for communities. This paper delves into the methodologies and challenges of knowledge transfer in developing REG as a community low-carbon landscape project. It encompasses low carbon living initiatives, including a recycling and reusing workshop, tree planting with the community, and landscape maintenance sharing sessions with experts. The project was accomplished within a 12-month timeline, yielding favourable results regarding community well-being, mosque landscape enhancement, and heightened awareness regarding carbon mitigation. In summary, the knowledge endowment project, aimed at fostering sustainable low-carbon community awareness, met its objectives within the REG initiative at the community mosque. However, there is a need for continued follow-up and sustainability efforts for the ongoing programs.

Entrants heterogeneity, pre-entry knowledge, and the target industry context: a taxonomy and a framework

Abstract This paper advances a general and unified framework to explain the patterns of entry in an industry. The specificity of a type of entrant is examined based on the match between the entrant’s prior experience, in terms of knowledge endowment, and the target industry context. The knowledge endowment is analyzed by focusing on its content—market, technological, organizational, and scientific—and its generic and specific nature. The target industry context is examined by looking at four basic dimensions: the stage of development of the target industry (the time dimension); the specific technological regime and related innovation patterns (the technological dimension); the demand regime (the demand dimension); and the institutional regime (the institutional dimension). These dimensions moderate the matching between the knowledge endowment of the type of entrants and the features of the industrial contexts. Our newly proposed taxonomy offers a more systematic and nuanced explanation of how the complex relationship between pre-entry experience and knowledge, entrants and the chosen target industry evolves over time.

Multinational enterprises, intra-regional cross-border M&As, and performance: Location advantages of market versus knowledge

Building on the theories of internalization and regional MNEs and using a sample of 11,098 cross-border M&As in 1997–2017, this study investigates performance implications of MNEs’ cross-border M&As aimed to locate overseas market potential versus knowledge endowment, in terms of intra-regional vis-à-vis inter-regional M&As. The main findings from this study are threefold: (1) Intra-regional cross-border M&As’ positive effects on their completion and post-merger operating performance are location advantage-specific phenomena; (2) When cross-border M&As are geared towards those foreign countries of strong market potential, intra-regional cross-border M&As are more likely to be completed, and followed by better post-merger operating performance of the acquirers than their inter-regional counterparts; and (3) When cross-border M&As are targeted towards those foreign countries endowed with sophisticated knowledge, intra-regional cross-border M&As are less likely to be completed, and do not seem to help the acquirers achieve better post-merger operating performance, compared to their inter-regional counterparts. The study concludes with important theoretical, practical, and public policy implications.

Empirical issues concerning studies of firm entry

Abstract We discuss that entry can be considered from various levels of analysis: entrepreneur-level, firm-level, and also at higher levels of aggregation, such as the industry-level and country-level. We also formulate a list of six challenges for econometric studies of firm entry, highlighting the data sources, typical empirical setups, potential sources of bias, and appropriate econometric techniques. While progress can be made with sophisticated econometric estimators, a pressing need for entry studies concerns detailed data on the gestation process, entry modes, and the value of resource endowments and knowledge endowments.

Phd Clinic and Knowledge Endowment: A Smart, Online Partnership Between Academic Library and Postgraduate Academic Consultants During The Covid 19 Pandemic

Phd Clinic and Knowledge Endowment: A Smart, Online Partnership Between Academic Library and Postgraduate Academic Consultants During The Covid 19 Pandemic

Local labour tasks and patenting in US commuting zones

Abstract In this article, we adopt a task approach to measure the local pool of capabilities which can more effectively spur innovation. By focusing on the core activities that workers undertake in their jobs, we build an abstract task intensity measure of occupations to proxy the ability in analysing and solving complex problems, as well as in coordinating and integrating people with different knowledge endowments, that should be especially relevant for the process of invention and innovation. We thus estimate the relationship between the local abstract intensity and the inventive performance, proxied by granted patents, of US Commuting Zones (CZs) during the period 2000–2015. The evidence provided, robust to a wide array of sensitivity checks, points to the extent of workers’ engagement in abstract tasks across CZs as a crucial determinant of the local inventive activity.

The relationship between R&D knowledge spillovers and employment entry

Recent approaches to entrepreneurship seek to explain regional heterogeneity by exploring the link between knowledge endowment and new firm creation. There are two main gaps in this stream of research. First, entrepreneurship tends to be considered in terms of entry rates rather than in terms of job creation. Second, most empirical studies focus on relatively large geographical areas and overlook the distance at which knowledge externalities dissipate. The present paper exploits data on firms based in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) to show that private R&D spillovers are positively associated with the size at entry of innovative firms only for those located close to the R&D activities and that these spillovers dissipate at a few kilometres from the R&D source. Non-linearities are detected only for low-tech sectors.

ISU DAN CABARAN DANA WAKAF ILMU UITM CAWANGAN PERLIS

The establishment of waqf funds in institutions of higher learning is increasingly being developed by many public and private institutions of higher learning throughout the country. The phenomenon of the establishment of waqf funds has triggered great innovations in the development of waqf in the country. It is in line with the launch of the UniTP Purple Book Guidelines that has been enforced for use in October 2016 by the Ministry of Higher Education to develop their respective endowment management centers to generate income. In this regard, UiTM Perlis Branch took the initiative to establish the UiTM Perlis Knowledge Endowment Fund (DWIPs). Thus, this study examined the issues and challenges faced by DWIPs in helping the income generation of higher learnings institutions. This study used a qualitative method with a case study at UiTM Perlis Branch. The experience of the authors and fellow authors who led DWIPs from the beginning of the establishment to the present were analyzed and described descriptively and comparatively. The findings of the study found that there are four issues and challenges, which are lack of understanding and public awareness of waqf, management bureaucracy problems, lack of energy resources in the management of DWIPs as well as legal and financial barriers. The results of this study are intended to help spread awareness of DWIPs among the staff and gain attention from the university management. In relation to that, it can also increase the amount of knowledge endowment fund collection and benefit all UiTM Perlis Branch staff.

Conflict or Collaboration-The Impact of Knowledge Endowment Heterogeneity on Remix in Open Collaborative Communities.

With the emergence of online open platforms and communities, remix has drawn much attention as an essential source of innovation whereby the knowledge endowment of online community users plays a crucial role. This study constructs a structural equation model to explore the impact of user knowledge endowment heterogeneity on remix through the mediating effect of their collaborative psychology. In this empirical study, we collected 25,032 pieces of data from Thingiverse (a 3D printing community) users and their published designs. The findings are as follows. Explicit knowledge endowment heterogeneity has a positive impact on the quantity of remix but a negative impact on its quality. Likewise, the implicit knowledge endowment heterogeneity positively affects the quantity of remix but has no significant effect on its quality. Users’ conflicting psychology plays a mediating role between knowledge endowment heterogeneity and remix, while their collaborative psychology negatively mediates merely between explicit knowledge endowment heterogeneity and remix quality. By unraveling the relationship between user knowledge endowment heterogeneity, collaborative psychology, and remix, this study is significant in understanding users’ remix process in open collaborative communities and illuminating their psychological mechanism in this process.

Value co-creation ‘gradients’: enabling human-machine interactions through AI-based DSS

Artificial Intelligence-based Decision Support Systems (AI-based DSS) are becoming increasingly important in many contexts. This work aims to define a type of human-machine interactions for new value co-creation processes' ranks, to help identify factors that can stimulate value co-creation in human-machine interactions. To understand if the outcome of a man-machine interaction can contribute to the co-creation of value, and in what way, the work carried out is epistemological and typological, also based on System Thinking. A matrix of novel gradients of the relationships between humans and non-humans has been created, and the typology of human-machine interactions has been identified for the new degrees of value co-creation processes, as well as the new specific scale of skills, in terms of language, learning, know-how, level of trust and endowment of knowledge, as a whole. The main implications concern the need to customize Decision Support Systems (DSS), to enhance different levels of intensity of relationships, and to identify insights for Decision Making AI - based users.

R&D INVESTMENTS IN PLANT BREEDING UNDER CHANGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

In a Cournot duopoly model, we examine three policy regimes relevant to current international plant breeding: patents alone, patents with a farmer exemption to use saved seed, and patents with research collaboration. In the symmetric version of the model where firms are identical, we show that the social planner prefers patents with research collaboration over patents alone and prefers the patents alone to patents with a farmer exemption. We examine two variations of the model where firms are asymmetric i. due to cost differences and ii. due to the different endowments of germplasm. Situations develop where the research collaboration resolves the common pool problem and increases R&D investment and where it creates free riding problem and decreases R&D investment. We show that the lower cost (more endowed) breeder invests more in R&D under the research collaboration than patents if variety differentiation is high and cost (knowledge endowment) dispersion is low. On the other hand, the higher cost (less endowed) breeder, generally, invests less in R&D under a research collaboration if variety differentiation or cost (knowledge endowment) dispersion is low. These findings suggest new gains are likely from the adoption of international conventions of plant breeders' rights. Keywords: Plant breeding, farmer exemption, research collaboration, Intellectual Property Rights, product differentiation, Cournot oligopoly.JEL Classifications: D21, D43, D60, D82, L13, L24, O34, O38, Q16, Q18DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.11544

Explore the Optimal Node Degree of Interfirm Network for Efficient Knowledge Sharing

Background: Network structure is a critical issue for efficient interfirm knowledge sharing. The optimal node degree turns out to be decisive because it is generally regarded as a core proxy of network structural characteristics. This paper is to examine what is the optimal node degree for an efficient network structure. Methods: Based on an interaction rule combining the barter rule and the gift rule, we first describe and then build a knowledge diffusion process. Then using four factors, namely network size, network randomness, knowledge endowment of network, and knowledge stock of each firm, we examine the factors that influence the optimal node degree for efficient knowledge sharing. Results: The simulation results show that the optimal node degree can be determined along the change in outer factors. Furthermore, changing the network randomness and network size has little impact on node degree. Instead, knowledge endowment of network and knowledge stock of each firm both have significant impact on the node degree. Conclusion: We find that an optimal node degree can always be found in any condition, which confirms the existence of a balanced state. Thus, policymakers can determine the appropriate number of links to avoid redundancy and thus reduce cost in interfirm networks. We also examine how different factors influence the size of the optimal node degree, and as a result, policymakers can set an appropriate number of links under different situations.

Rasayana

Rasayana

The fountain of knowledge: an epistemological perspective on the growth of U.S. SBIR-funded firms

The premise of this paper is that a basis for firms receiving Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) research awards to develop commercializable technologies is not only their proposed creative ideas but also their endowment of attendant knowledge necessary to develop the technology being proposed. Based on this premise, we propose that those firms that have higher growth rates attributable to their SBIR awards are also those firms that are more creative and have more knowledge endowments. Empirically, we quantify a firms creativity and its sources of research knowledge in terms of its past experiences, and we find that firms with more technical experience and sector experience are those that have realized higher growth rates from their SBIR-funded research.

Performance of two Patagonian molluscs as trace metal biomonitors: The overlap bioaccumulation index (OBI) as an integrative tool for the management of marine ecosystems

In this study, we have investigated Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in the biomonitors Mytilus chilensis and Nacella (P) magellanica sampled along seven selected sampling sites along 170 km of the coastal area of the Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) in four sampling campaigns: 2005, 2007, 2011 and 2012. The control charts were built by applying Johnson’s probabilistic method for the first time in this marine area. We determined the metal concentration overlap ranges in the selected biomonitors (as well as medians and distribution), and the overlap bioaccumulation index (OBI) with respect to the lowest (OBI-L1) and the highest (OBI-L) extreme values of the overlap metal concentration ranges. The OBI can be used as an integrative tool in the management of prevailing unpolluted/polluted marine coastal ecosystems. It consents to identify the most suitable organisms for managing several environmental conditions where an ecosystem quality control is needed. The OBI-L1 index can be employed as a preventive signal of alarm when the contamination process is in its early stages. For Cd, Ni, Cu and Cr, Nacella showed high OBI-L values that suggest its use as a biomonitor for mainly polluted marine ecosystems, in particular for Cd. Mytilus showed high Cd values for the OBI-L1 which means that this species is highly sensitive to a very low variation of the Cd levels in seawater. The OBI index enhances the observer’s information variety about the performance of the molluscs as metal biomonitors in marine ecosystems. Eventually, here we propose to conceptualize the wide set of biomonitoring knowledge endowment as an open and evolutionary endowment of information variety supporting the environmental management.

How technology-based firms become also highly innovative firms? The role of knowledge, technological and managerial capabilities, and entrepreneurs’ background

To what extent is the likelihood that a Technology-Based Firm – TBF – turns into a Technology-Based and Highly Innovative Firm – TB&InnF – is influenced by technical capabilities or managerial capabilities and education background? We analyse this question using a novel data panel assembled for 326 Spanish industrial firms, along the period 1998–2014. Our findings show the probability of becoming a TB&InnF growths when firms are able to accumulate a high endowment of knowledge and technological capabilities, and a managerial team with experience, a strong power position and previous technical or managerial education background. Results also indicate the CEO's educational profile in management is preferable to a pure technical background by facilitating the transformation into a TB&InnF, because it complements better with the firm's knowledge and technological capabilities by facilitating the transformation of a scientific or technological project into a successful entrepreneurial innovation, which creates new value. These findings make a clear distinction between TBF and TB&InnF, put in question the traditional definition of TB&InnF, exclusively focused toward R+D activity, and valorise the importance of a CEO with both a broader vision that combines technologies, products, markets and people, with the ability to sense and seize new opportunities.

More “team” than “fame”: spin-off success in the US television sitcom industry

This article presents an application of recent management theories concerning the effect of pre-entry experience and knowledge transfer within the context of creative industries. The setting of the empirical research is the television situation comedy (sitcom) industry in the United States between 1949 and 2011. Specifically, we explore the factors that explain the survival rate of sitcoms and their spin-offs. We develop two sets of indicators to explore the effect of pre-entry experience: team similarity and star power based on the character/actor. Our findings show that spin-offs, or sitcoms that inherit character/actors and theme elements from a successful parent sitcom, have a greater likelihood to survive than de novo sitcoms. Even further, the greater the number of team members that not only worked with each other on previous shows but worked together on the same parent show, the better the performance of the spin-off. By contrast, star power, or the fame of the character/actor(s) that passes from the parent to the spin-off, shows no significant correlation with performance. We suggest that these results provide initial evidence that, consistent with the literature on spinouts in manufacturing industries, knowledge endowments represent an important source of performance heterogeneity in project-based industries.

The mediation role of companies’ dynamic capabilities for business performance excellence: insights from foreign direct investments. The case of transitional partnership

This study uses a combination of multinational enterprises and dynamic capabilities perspectives to illustrate how the involvement of foreign investors is able to contribute to a company’s corporate performance. Using Russian companies as an empirical sample and applying PLS-SEM, we test hypotheses regarding the impact of dynamic capabilities in terms of absorptive, adaptive, and communicative capabilities, on the relationship between foreign ownership and performance. Findings indicate that dynamic capabilities fully mediate the process of foreign direct investments transformation into firm’s results. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the mechanism by which dynamic capabilities enhance the positive effects of foreign direct investments on business performance, and advance the theoretical understanding of how a dynamic capabilities concept could be incorporated into multinational enterprises theory in the framework of relationships between companies from economies with different knowledge endowment.

Which Factors Favour Becoming a Technology-Based & Highly Innovative Firm? The Role of Knowledge, Technological and Managerial Capabilities, and Entrepreneurs’ Education Background

Which resources and capabilities ease the change to become a Technology-Based and Highly Innovative Firm – TB&InnF –, focused in the creation of value to market? We analyse this question using a novel data panel assembled for 326 Spanish industrial firms, along the period 1984-2012. Our findings show the probability of becoming a TB&InnF growths when firms are able to accumulate a high endowment of knowledge and technological capabilities, and a managerial team with: experience, strong power position and previous technical and managerial education. Results also indicate the CEO´s educational profile in management is preferable to a pure technical profile, because this complements firm´s knowledge and technological capabilities and enables the transformation of a scientific or technological project into a successful entrepreneurial innovation, which creates new value to market.