Stock Of Knowledge Research Articles

Holdup, Knowledge Transferability, and Productivity: Theory and Evidence from Knowledge Workers*

This article studies how firing costs affect the productivity of knowledge workers. We develop a holdup model in which workers are essential to knowledge transfer between firms and show that if the worker's knowledge stock is sufficiently transferable to competing firms, an increase in firing costs inhibits the firm's ability to hold up the worker and thereby leads to higher effort. We consider the passage of the wrongful discharge laws in the US as an exogenous increase in firing costs and test our theory using data on patents filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Expanded Model of Everyday Information Practices with Information Avoidance in Digital Environments

ABSTRACTUntil recently, research on information behavior and practices has focused on a series of actions, including having information needs, seeking information to satisfy those needs, and using the acquired information to varying degrees. However, in digital environments with an enormous distribution of information, it is necessary to consider information practices by focusing on their relationship with negative behaviors, such as information avoidance. Based on the discourses by Japanese Canadian seniors on information behavior during the COVID‐19 pandemic, this study attempted to construct an expanded model of everyday information practices (EIP) that incorporates the concept of information avoidance into the EIP model proposed by Savolainen. Findings suggest that information avoidance is likely related to an individual's social context and that, as a result of information avoidance, different means of information acquisition are chosen from a person's stock of knowledge, resulting in different aspects of the individual's information practices.

Mediatized Love: A Materialist Phenomenology of Tinder

The article scrutinizes the mediatization of dating and love as part of a broader mediatization process of the life-world, with a focus on the experience of using the popular dating app Tinder. Central to the analysis is how interfacial features, algorithmic structuration, and user perceptions create the affordances of the application and, in the process, shape the experience of using it. The experience of using Tinder is characterized by a “swipe logic,” marked by speediness, visuality, and (self-)objectification, but also by the prevalence of cynicism and boredom on the platform. Under these circumstances, users of Tinder are confronted with new challenges, and to tackle these, they make use of their life-world knowledge as well as creating novel forms of knowledge. While using Tinder, they apply and modify their life-world stock of knowledge. Tinder as a tool of online dating is marked by the duality of reflectivity versus impulsive affectivity, superficiality versus depth, and instrumentality versus striving for relations thought of as authentic. All in all, the mediatization of partner selection is interpreted as a special form of the colonization of the life-world.

Does landscape play a role in the governance of the coastal region? An evolutionary perspective from Portugal since 1950

The landscape crisis and the climate crisis strongly affect coastal landscapes in many coastal regions worldwide. Evidence shows that the difficulty of governing coastal regions has increased alongside the attractiveness of contemporary societies for settlements near the coastline. There is a growing debate in landscape governance conceptualisation and operationalisation, in landscape research. Despite the significant progress on this theme, empirical discussions on coastal landscapes are scarce, a trend already followed by landscape and coastal planning and management debates, highlighting the need for empirical research. This article explores this research gap, conducting an evolutionary analysis of the governance of the coastal region in Portugal, tracing the co-evolution of its institutions and actors since 1950 to understand whether the landscape concept has been integrated into the governance of the coastal region. Our research design comprised two main parts. Firstly, we conducted a literature review comparing the Portuguese landscape and coastal governance diachronic analysis with the evolution at the European level. Secondly, we undertook a content analysis of the principal legislative institutions over the analysed time frame. Results reveal that Portuguese governance evolution diverges somehow from European trends, particularly after the European Landscape Convention, and show that the integration of the landscape concept into the coastal governance system was strongly dependent on powerful actors, their particular interests, values and stocks of knowledge. Along its evolutionary path, the imperative for coastal landscape governance arises from recognising its pivotal role in addressing the intricate and interconnected challenges inherent to coastal regions, needing further research to advance its theoretical and empirical knowledge.

Influence of respondents’ Differentiation of subjective response on water knowledge stock test scale: Evaluation based on two-parameter-multidimensional IRT model

Insufficient awareness of water issues is a crucial bottleneck restricting the sustainable utilization of water resources. To accurately measure citizens' water knowledge stock and overcome the differences between scales and respondents' characteristic levels on test results, the research focuses on developing and evaluating water knowledge stock test scales. The mechanism for identifying indicators is designed based on the grounded theory, and as a result, the water knowledge stock test indicator system is derived. The data was collected by the form of survey questionnaire developed with the test indicator system. A two-parameter multidimensional item response theoretical model is constructed based on item parameter estimation, data model fitting, and item information function. The survey data and optimization model are used to optimize the water knowledge stock test scale and verify the fitting degree with the characteristics of the respondents. The test information function and standard error function indicate that the scale is most informative for individuals with characteristic levels ranging from −2 to 3, resulting in a highly reliable test effect. The research has established a measurement indicator system, methodology, and presented results that serve as a foundation for measuring the stock of water knowledge.

Can network infrastructure construction improve the low-carbon innovation of Chinese enterprises?

This study considers the implementation of the "Broadband China" strategy as an exogenous policy shock and examines the impact of network infrastructure construction (NIC) on the low-carbon innovation (LCI) of enterprises and its underlying mechanisms by using a progressive difference-in-difference model based on the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2009 to 2020. This study finds that NIC can improve the LCI of enterprises. After the elimination of the sample selection bias and selection of the urban slope as the exogenous instrumental variable, the conclusions remained robust. The results of the mechanism test show that upgrading the human capital level, reducing transaction costs, and alleviating financing constraints are the three important paths through which NIC can help enterprises improve their LCI level. The heterogeneity analysis determines that NIC has considerable comparative advantages for enterprises with executives who have a financial background and enterprises with high knowledge stock. In addition, LCI improvement can further enhance enterprise value. The research conclusions can broaden the microscopic research perspective of enterprise transformation and upgrading theory and provide reliable empirical evidence for China's low-carbon economic transformation.

Global value chains and knowledge spillover to local economy in Visegrad 4 countries

AbstractThis study empirically examines knowledge spillover in Visegrad Four (V4) countries, with an emphasis on global value chains (GVCs). Using patent statistics, the study aims to estimate the knowledge production function, including domestic and foreign knowledge stocks, and found that international knowledge spillover does not contribute much to the innovation of the local economy in the V4 countries because of three factors: i) multinational corporations' (MNCs) strategy to locate a low-cost production base, ii) MNCs' strategy to locate supporting (process, production or non-core product related) research and development (R&D) activities and iii) limited technology spillover effect from MNCs to local firms. Local firms in the V4 countries became dependent on the peripheral products and technologies provided by MNCs, and as a result, local R&D activities in the V4 countries were diverted from patentable innovation.

Peculiarities of Teaching the Course «Civic Education» in Ukraine (Since 2022)

This article examines the peculiarities of teaching the «Civic Education» course in Ukraine, starting in 2022. The results. It has been proven that after mastering this educational discipline students of 10th grade of general secondary education institutions can acquire a valuable stock of knowledge at worldview, social science, political and legal, environmental, information and mass media levels, acquire knowledge about the main directions of European and international politics. It was found that, nevertheless, the curriculum of the academic discipline needs additions, which are related to the democratization of public life in Ukraine, the holding of democratic elections to the bodies of state power and local self-government in Ukraine in the period 2014-2021, the permanent armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine; the assistance to Ukraine by Western partners; the challenges of the present and the future. The changes and additions proposed by the authors of the article cover the theoretical foundations of the course, key competencies, principles of designing the course content, a list of basic concepts, the content of directions that form integrative civics knowledge. It is substantiated that the content of the educational subject can be improved thanks to the correction of sections and topics of the course program, which have a worldview and moral and ethical character (personality and its identity, socialization of personality, self-realization of a person). Conclusions. The need to make additions to the sections and topics necessary for the formation of an active citizen of Ukraine in the political and legal aspect (human rights and freedoms, democratic society and its values, civil society, rule of law, welfare state) has been established. The relevance of making additions to the content of the educational subject, which are directly related to the radical change in the living conditions of Ukrainian society in connection with Russia's war against Ukraine, is emphasized. It has been determined that such additions may refer to the sections about the person in the socio-cultural space, about the world of information and mass media, about Ukraine, Europe, the world.

Competition and the Industrial Challenge for the Digital Age

Tech giants' dominance does not confront us with an unpalatable choice between laissez-faire and populist interventions. This article takes stock of available knowledge, considers desirable adaptations of regulation in the digital age, and draws some conclusions for policy reform.

Contradictions of Scientific Multidimensionality - a Social Epistemology Insight

The paper problematizes the issue of contradictions of scientific multidimensionality and is devised as a contribution to the topic from the perspective of social epistemology. The paper points to the fact that scientific multidimensionality and interdisciplinarity are some of the unquestionable categories in the defining of contemporary notions of knowledge and science, and that, as such, they inherently possess negative aspects, which must be taken into consideration when reflected on within the current world history. The paper in particular foregrounds the problem of the status of humanities and social sciences which are marked as redundant and practically useless, due to the objective global and political circumstances and the rearguard capitalist logic. Moreover, the paper also discusses the conceptual history and a sort of knowledge stock of the fundamental roots of the modern notion of scientific knowledge, about which we can take more clear positions to contemporary discussions on the topic.

Evidential reasoning, testimonial injustice and the fairness of the criminal trial

The article argues that the assessment of the relevance and of the probative value of an item of evidence is susceptible to an evaluation on moral grounds (such as fairness), rather than just to an evaluation on epistemic grounds (such as accuracy). In particular, the article shows that an assessment of relevance and of probative value is unfair, and renders the trial unfair, when this assessment instantiates epistemic injustice of the testimonial kind; and that it instantiates such an injustice when, due to identity prejudice against a social group to which one of the parties in the proceedings belongs, the evidence is assessed without considering the experience and stock of knowledge of thisparty. The article offers several examples of this phenomenon. The upshot is that higher courts, whose role includes checking that proceedings have been fair, should dirty their hands more readily than they are currently doing with the evidential reasoning of the first-instance adjudicator. However, the focus should be on preventing unfairness, rather than treating it.

The factors influencing information technology solutions evaluation: A case of a Nigerian Bank from actor-network theory perspective

Although information technology (IT) solutions are deployed to enable organizational objectives, however, the solutions do at the same time constrain the operations, as was in the case of a Nigerian banking institution, ActionBank. Some of the attributes of the constraints arise because evaluation of the IT solutions is not regularly conducted. From both technical and non-technical perspectives, this study explores factors that influence the challenging constraints. Qualitative data, using semi-structured interview technique, were gathered from employees of both IT and business units of the bank. Actor-network theory was employed in the analysis. From the analysis, the factors that influence the deployment of IT solutions in the organization were found, which are Requirements; Alignment; Process-oriented; Random approach; Scalability and reliability; and Stock of knowledge. Figure 1 is used to illustrate the interaction and interdependence between these factors, as they influence the selection, deployment and evaluation of the IT solutions that are used to enable and support banking operations. The paper discusses how the factors manifest themselves to influence the selection and deployment of IT solutions in the organization. This brings a fresh perspective to both operational and strategic approaches in the use of IT solutions to enable and support banking goals and objectives.

The half-life of knowledge and strategic human capital

The strategic human capital literature has largely overlooked the fact that knowledge stocks depreciate and that the speed of depreciation varies across settings and over time. We argue that the value of knowledge has a half-life and that numerous core predictions from the conventional human capital analysis change as the half-life shortens. This applies to the ability to extract rents from human capital, employee mobility patterns, employees' disincentive to invest in firm-specific human capital, and more. We also show that, at the limit, a sufficiently rapid rate of knowledge depreciation eliminates the importance of the distinction between general and firm-specific human capital for appropriation and employee mobility.

Creating Sustainable High-Performance Human Resource Practice through Employees Learning Agility. The Transition Adaptive Approach

Recently, the Covid 19 posed enormous challenges compelling organizations to adapt to unforeseen events as a result of direct immediate threats thereby pushing human resource practitioners to reshape their existing human resources practice. To the researchers’ knowledge, no study has so far investigated the relationship between employee learning agility (ELA) and high-performance human resources practice (HPHRP) particularly, the mediating effect of person-organization fit (P-O fit) to reshape the human resource practice through transition adaptive theory. A self-completed survey from public sector employees in the Fiji Islands yielded a sample of data with 351 participants. The proposed model was analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM), showing a model fit for the research. The findings show that ELA significantly enhances HPHRP. This suggests that learning opportunity provides an opportunity to adopt, modify and recombine the current knowledge with new knowledge in creating new knowledge stock. The diffusion of such knowledge can assist significantly in improving human resource practice. Moreover, the mediating effect of P-O fit shows the congruence between ELA and organization, further suggesting that employees perform best in an environment that supports their salient needs and recognizes their knowledge, abilities, and skills in reshaping human resources practice. As such, this becomes our significant contribution to the extant literature on human resource management. Finally, the current research offers theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and further research directions.

Organisational knowledge stocks and exploitative development of new radical products

PurposeDespite the important role that exploitation plays in innovation and new product development (NPD), research on the relative impact of internal organisational stocks of existing knowledge on subsequent exploitation is largely absent. In particular, there is lack of clarity within the extant literature regarding the associations between organisational exploitation and, respectively, the distal-proximal technological experience and radical-incremental innovative experience generated by multiproduct firms. Thus, this study seeks to further enhance researchers’ theoretical understanding on the relationship between organisational exploitation and internal knowledge stocks categorised along two dimensions of organisational experience accumulated by multiproduct firms that have not previously been considered jointly.Design/methodology/approachThis paper pursues a focussed literature review approach and applies the underlying theory of exploitation to develop a theory explaining the possible relationships between organisational exploitation and internal knowledge stocks.FindingsBased on the theory of exploitation, this paper proposes a new direction in studying the various internal knowledge stocks and their respective impact on subsequent organisational exploitation.Practical implicationsThe proposed research direction suggests an emerging framework of possible relationships between exploitative new radical products development in firms, and respectively, proximal and distal technological experience, and radical and incremental innovative experience, accumulated in multiproduct firms. This novel framework can guide further research on this topic.Originality/valueTo fill a research gap regarding the possible relationships between subsequent exploitative endeavours and two dimensions of organisational experience that have been traditionally associated with the exploration-exploitation construct, this paper proposes and develops a novel typology of knowledge stocks categorised along two dimensions of organisational experience accumulated by multiproduct firms that have not previously been considered jointly in the literature.

Diffusion of technology and renewable energy in the G10 countries: A panel threshold analysis

The paper analyzes the threshold effect of technology innovation on renewable energy in the G10 countries through the panel threshold method. The outcome shows that technology innovation has a low impact on renewable energy when technology innovation is below the threshold value. However, technology innovation has a strong positive effect on renewable energy when the threshold value is above because of the expansion of spending on energy and technology. Moreover, digitalization makes renewable integration possible, analytic and artificial intelligence improve production. The findings explore that carbon emission has a negative impact on renewable energy. However, knowledge stocks, imported oil prices, economic growth, and electricity consumption positively affect renewable energy. The countries must develop more cost-effective, mature, and accessible renewable energy technology. Also, the focus should be on implementation instead of investing in existing infrastructure. A political commitment to phase out nuclear power and fossil fuels can improve the underwhelming performance.

Formation of the System of Secondary Vocational Education in Russia: Problems and Development Prospects

The training of personnel as a resource for transformations is associated with the effectiveness of state management decisions in the education sector; the use of both direct, legislative tools, and indirect ones that affect the development of human capital, such as motivation, individualization, increasing the stock of knowledge and professional experience during training. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the role of the state in the development of the system of secondary vocational education; with the identification of factors influencing the stages of its transformation. Methodology. The analysis of literature on the topic of research in the unity of logical and historical methods of cognition is used. Results. It is shown that in all historical periods the state regulation of the education system is significant. At present, the social mission of education has been strengthened; modern positive educational strategies have been developed to fill the labor market. Conclusion. It is determined that the formation of the education system, as a historically established system of personnel training, is associated with the unity and integrity of the general educational space of Russia, the uniqueness of the national educational system. The advantage of the Russian experience is the preservation of traditions and continuity of pedagogical experience, the continuous organization of natural science education, the methodological content of subjects. Initiatives for the further development of the system of secondary vocational education are connected with the political and economic foundations of the transformation. The need to preserve traditional Russian national values while preparing a specialist for a technocratic society seems to be the subject of further discussions.

Recombinant Capabilities, R&D Collaboration, and Innovation Performance of Emerging Market Firms in High-Technology Industry

The capability that facilitates the transition of emerging market firms (EMFs) from technology followers to innovation leaders is an important but underexamined topic, particularly for firms aiming to compete distinctively in high-technology fields. Drawing on the recombinant perspective, in this article, we investigate how an EMFs’ recombinant capability relates to its innovation and how R&D collaboration moderates this relationship. Using panel data on 184 publicly listed firms in the Chinese telecommunication-equipment industry from 2009 to 2014, we find that both recombinant reuse and recombinant creation positively relate to firm innovation performance. Moreover, the positive association between recombinant reuse and innovation is strengthened by the high degree of R&D collaboration. These findings provide novel insights into how firms may overcome their latecomer disadvantages and leverage the accumulated knowledge stock to foster innovation in an emerging economy.

Does local knowledge spillover matter for firm productivity? The role of financial access and corporate governance

Global productivity growth has either stagnated or declined, despite continued technological innovations with the rise of knowledge-intensive intangibles that arise from the growth of knowledge stock (R&D activities). Understanding the root causes of this paradox in the context of growing economies requires an investigation of whether local knowledge diffusion can explain firm-level productivity differences, including key constraining factors like sources of financing or corporate governance structure. Using financial data of 7970 Indian firms over a 20-year period and clustering firms across industries, we assess the impact of R&D stock that is external to the firm through estimating both within (intra) and between (inter) industry spillovers. We find that both R&D and non-R&D-performing firms benefit from ‘between industry’ spillovers. We further show that firms with better access to finance achieve higher productivity, not only through their own R&D capital stock but also via both types of industry-level knowledge spillover. We allow for the two key sources of international spillovers namely import intensity and FDI. While import-intensive firms experience lower productivity, FDI mitigates this adverse productivity effect across knowledge-intensive exporting firms. The paper concludes that financially unconstrained firms and firms with greater corporate board connectedness derive positive industry-level spillover effects, reflecting intra- and inter-industry as domestic spillover or local value-chain effect in the literature on technological innovation.

Financing constraints and impact on corporate performance growth: Study in China listed logistics enterprises.

Based on 2010-2019 Chinese logistics listed companies as research samples, the paper used the binary Logit model measuring degree of financing constraints. The Kernel density function and Markov chain model are used to forecast China listed companies financing logistics dynamic constraints and business performance growth. Furthermore the stock of knowledge was chosen as a threshold variable to explore the impact of financing constraints on corporate performance growth of listed logistics enterprises. We find that the degree of financing constraints of logistics enterprises in our country has not been significantly eased. Corporate performance has not changed significantly and there are no obvious spatial gap and polarization with the passage of time. The impact of financing constraints on the corporate performance growth of logistics enterprises in China has a double threshold effect of knowledge stock, and has an inhibitory effect that first increases and then decreases. This is because in the short term, the investment of knowledge stock by enterprises can crowd out more corporate liquidity, and in the long run, it is related to the conversion rate of the knowledge stock itself. Because of the uneven regional distribution of resources and differences in the degree of economic development, there is a growing disincentive effect in central China as the stock of knowledge accumulates.