INVESTIGADORES
ROBERT Veronica
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Diffusion and appropriation of knowledge in different organizational structures
Autor/es:
ANALÍA ERBES; VERÓNICA ROBERT; GABRIEL YOGUEL; JOSÉ BORELLO
Lugar:
Copenhagen
Reunión:
Conferencia; DRUID Summer Conference 2006 on KNOWLEDGE, INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVENESS: DYNAMICS OF FIRMS, NETWORKS, REGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS; 2006
Institución organizadora:
DRUID
Resumen:
This paper tries to explain the frequently mentioned inverse relation between diffusion of knowledge and the appropriation of quasi-rent generated by its development. We believe that this relation is determined by the interaction of three dimensions: technological specificities, the way of the organizations manage its knowledge and the competition environment. These dimensions can be thought as three different regimes, where each them can take different kinds, forms. Two of these regimes have been already explored by the literature: the technological one has been deeply discussed by Marlerba and Orsenigo, and the competition regime describes no more than market structure, which is well known. In addition to them, we introduced the management knowledge regime, trying to incorporate the predominant kind of knowledge management in different firms and other organizational structures (like productive networks).In order to analyze how does these three regimes affect the relation between diffusion and appropriation we have developed a firm taxonomy that takes into account two dimensions: The importance of production networks (which could be low or high depending on the relevance of interchanges that goes beyond the mercantile relationship)The importance of knowledge  (which, one more time, could be low or high, depending the importance of innovation and management of tacit and codified firm’s knowledge in the development of competitive advantages)From this exercise, as you can see, emerge a four type taxonomy:Isolated firms, where the relations with other agents are limited to mercantile relationship, then it reduce the collective learning mechanism. In these firms the appropriation of quasi-rent derived from innovations is almost null, because the knowledge they use is already widely diffused. We can resume saying that this firms face high levels of diffusion and low levels of appropriation.Knowledge islands are also isolated firms, but the high endogenous competence developed by theses agents allows them rises (increases) the value of the firm. We are thinking in firms that operate in first stages of new sectors, where the innovations are the central source of quasi-rents but the probability of imitation threaten constantly the monopolistic or oligopolistic positions.When firms operated in networks we have to possibilities:when knowledge is not important, we are in front of we called bureaucratic networks, which could be associated to big conglomerated that operates in traditional scale-based sectors (like iron and steel, basic chemistry or automotive sector in developing countries). These firms usually command huge suppliers networks but the sources of its market power are not in technological innovation but in capital accumulation, scale economies and lobby power. last, but not least, we have the knowledge networks. These networks are made up by a group of firms that operate jointly in new sectors and the interaction among them are not limited to commercial transactions but include knowledge interchange and collective development. Although these networks operate in environments filled of uncertainty and imitation’s risks, they are protect form outsiders by the cognitive capacities developed at the network level, which allows them to rise (increase) its innovation velocity (speed) and to put up barriers to entry based on minimum thresholds of decodification skills. In these cases, the appropriation is high and the diffusion (in terms of leakages) is low.