The influence of knowledge related to innovative performance

Purpose This paper aims to assess knowledge relatedness as a possible determinant of business innovation performance. Knowledge relatedness is understood as the degree of similarity between a firm’s knowledge and that of its parent, i.e. the company that the entrepreneur leaves to establish his or her own firm. Innovation performance results from the competitive position that the company achieves through its management of new products and services on the market. Design/methodology/approach For the empirical work, the authors used a database composed of 356 entrepreneurs who established recently their own business in Costa Rica: people who stopped working in multinational companies in Costa Rica and created their own businesses, and people who created their own businesses simultaneously as the former employees of multinationals. Findings This paper reports a positive and significant correlation between knowledge relatedness and innovation performance for a number of young firms. Originality/value This paper presents the fact of including knowledge relatedness as a research topic linked to business innovation.

Technological relatedness, knowledge space and smart specialisation: The case of Germany

The level of technological specialisation in the regions of Germany is assessed in this paper, as well as how such specialisation has evolved over time. Further, in three selected regions (Munich, Düsseldorf and Oberes Elbtal/Osterzgebirge), the knowledge space is explored in detail and compared to existing smart specialisation strategies. Average relatedness and knowledge space based upon EPO patent applications are used to measure the specialisation and technology trajectories of the German regions. Between three periods 1988–1992, 1998–2002 and 2008–2012, the specialisation of Germany based on EPO patent applications increased by 10%, despite a decline in many regions. Machinery and transportation industries have increased their significance. The assessment of regional smart specialisation strategies in the three German states shows that the methodology in terms of the identification of prospective industries is largely variegated and insufficiently developed. More attention should also be given to the choice of an appropriate geographical level of aggregation for analysis. Knowledge relatedness and knowledge complexity could be used as methodological tools for selecting prospective industries in smart specialisation strategies.

Cómo surge y se vincula el conocimiento relacionado con el desempeño en las Pymes: un análisis cualitativo

El presente artículo busca describir cómo se relacionan el conocimiento y el desempeño en las pequeñas y medianas empresas, bajo el enfoque teórico de conocimiento relacionado y en un contexto de un país en vías de desarrollo, como Costa Rica. El conocimiento relacionado (knowledge relatedness) se entiende como el grado de similitud que existe entre el conocimiento que utiliza un emprendedor en su propia empresa con respecto al utilizado en su trabajo en una empresa progenitora, es decir la empresa de la cual salió de trabajar el emprendedor al fundar la propia. El estudio se realizó mediante una investigación cualitativa, en la cual se entrevistaron ocho emprendedores provenientes de firmas multinacionales los cuales actualmente cuentan con su propio emprendimiento. Se halló que las variables influyentes en el surgimiento del conocimiento relacionado son tres (puesto que desempeñó en la multinacional, tipo de emprendimiento formado y momento de incorporación al emprendimiento). Además en las tres posturas planteadas para desempeño se halló una relación positiva con respecto a la utilización del conocimiento relacionado.

Foundations and Applications of Intelligent Knowledge Exchange

Exchange of knowledge is becoming increasingly important to modern organizations. In this chapter, it is explained what this elementary knowledge exchange consists of and how a virtual workplace can support knowledge exchange between workers. A scenario from the medical domain illustrates how physicians can improve their knowledge exchange by utilizing the virtual workplace models introduced. Better adaptation to the rapidly changing nature of providing healthcare is a desirable effect of improved knowledge exchange between physicians. Explicit models concerning possible physical, social and digital contexts of knowledge exchange are discussed, as well as models which depict how knowledge relatedness enables intelligent knowledge exchange. Researchers studying virtual workplace models for industry and academic purposes belong to the intended audience of this chapter. Administrators of public sector or other non-profit agencies who wish to incorporate virtual workplace models and methods into their daily operations can also benefit from the contents discussed.