Knowledge management in product innovation: an interpretative review

Knowledge management (KM) is relatively new, but still a very hot topic in management research and practice. Leading companies are reshaping their organizations in order to increase their ability in managing knowledge sharing and transfer within and across their organizational boundaries. KM is today considered by many scholars the next arena for global competition. Product innovation (PI), in particular, is one of the most promising areas, where KM is today applied and studied. Management literature has underlined how knowledge becomes the only source of sustainable competitive advantage in turbulent contexts, and the cognitive perspective represents the most adequate approach to analysing and understanding PI as a continuous learning process rather than as a sporadic event. Since the early 1990s, many contributions emerged from different fields, but after nearly one decade, KM is not yet a unitary stream of literature but reflects very diverse roots. In this paper, the different streams and approaches emerging in literature on KM in PI are reviewed and described, aiming at providing researchers with an interpretative tool and some directions for further research.     

Evaluation of statistical protocols for quality control of ecosystem carbon dioxide fluxes

Summary.  The process of quality control of micrometeorological and carbon dioxide (CO₂) flux data can be subjective and may lack repeatability, which would undermine the results of many studies. Multivariate statistical methods and time series analysis were used together and independently to detect and replace outliers in CO₂ flux data derived from a Bowen ratio energy balance system. The results were compared with those produced by five experts who applied the current and potentially subjective protocol. All protocols were tested on the same set of three 5-day periods, when measurements were conducted in an abandoned agricultural field. The concordance of the protocols was evaluated by using the experts' opinion (mean ± 1.96 standard deviations) as a reference interval (the Bland–Altman method). Analysing the 15 days together, the statistical protocol that combined multivariate distance, multiple linear regression and time series analysis showed a concordance of 93% on a 20-min flux basis and 87% on a daily basis (only 2 days fell outside the reference interval), and the overall flux differed only by 1.7% (3.2 g CO₂ m⁻²). An automated version of this or a similar statistical protocol could be used as a standard way of filling gaps and processing data from Bowen ratio energy balance and other techniques (e.g. eddy covariance). This would enforce objectivity in comparisons of CO₂ flux data that are generated by different research groups and streamline the protocols for quality control.     

Industrial change, Hispanic immigration, and the internal migration of low-skilled native male workers in the United States, 1995-2000

Debates over immigration’s impact on less advantaged native workers often ignore industrial structure for creating segregated labor markets and demand for immigrant workers. We analyze population movements of less-educated foreign-born Hispanic, native-born Hispanic, White, and Black men between 1995 and 2000 using MIGPUMA-level 2000 PUMS data. We model in-migration, out-migration, and net migration for each group controlling for demographic composition, employment structure, change in employment structure, labor market indicators, and macro contextual measures. Results indicate positive significant relationships between migration patterns of all groups and support labor demand explanations of internal low-skilled migration emphasizing industrial change rather than labor competition.     

Social Networks and Employment: Outcomes (Part 2)

In this second article, we continue to survey research that addresses work and employment from a social network perspective. Building on a companion article in this volume, which explores in‐depth the main network mechanisms presented in the literature, this article reviews studies addressing how social networks may shape key employment outcomes for both individuals and organizations. Network access and activation may shape individuals' selection into employment opportunities in addition to a variety of post‐hire outcomes including employee performance, promotion, rewards, job satisfaction, and termination. Organizations too may be influenced by their network position and by the activation of certain ties, ultimately affecting key outcomes such as firm performance, innovation, and learning measures. We conclude by discussing promising areas for future research on how social networks interact with employment.     

Level-dependent deforestation trajectories in the Brazilian Amazon from 1970 to 2001

This article demonstrates the importance of examining level-dependent deforestation trajectories that may be undetected within regional analyses. We examine Amazon-wide, sub-regional, settlement, and farm-level deforestation trajectories in the Brazilian Amazon and suggest factors that underlie level-dependent differences in spatial patterns and temporal magnitudes of deforestation from 1970 to 2001. At a sub-regional level, we find significant variation in frequency, magnitude, and intensity of deforestation associated with context-specific processes, including areas that have stopped deforesting, are rapidly reforesting, while at the same time increasing economic value of forest-based production. We use remote-sensing data from 1970 to 2001. For Amazon-wide and state-level analyses, we use data available from Brazil??s National Institute for Space Research. For sub-regional, settlement, and farm-lot levels, time-series Landsat images and aerial photographs and detailed field-based research are used to reconstruct the history of deforestation. Our analysis empirically demonstrates that understanding deforestation trajectories requires differentiating underlying causes at different levels of analysis and to be wary of overarching explanations and solutions that ignore differences in scale.     

A Case for “Reverse One-Child” Policies in Japan and South Korea? Examining the Link Between Education Costs and Lowest-Low Fertility

Household spending on children’s pre-tertiary education is exceptionally high in Japan and South Korea, and has been cited as a cause of low fertility. Previous research attributes this high spending to a cultural emphasis on education in East Asian countries. In this paper, we argue that institutional factors, namely higher education and labor market systems, play an important role in reinforcing the pressure on parents to invest in their children’s education. We review evidence showing that graduating from a prestigious university has very high economic and social returns in Japan and South Korea, and examine the implications for fertility within the framework of quantity–quality models. Finally, we put forward ‘reverse one-child’ policies that directly address the unintended consequences of these institutional factors on fertility. These policies have the additional virtues of having very low fiscal requirements and reducing social inequality.     

Reference points for getting a target in a soccer competition. A probabilistic model with applications to the Spanish and English Premier League

We model the probabilities that a soccer team gets a target, for example, to play the Champions League, the UEFA Europa League or preserve the category. Taking into account the points won until de mth matchday of the competition, when the winter transfer window is closed. We give closed-form expressions for the probabilities of reaching the goals. We also introduce a risk measure which is going to give us the smallest initial points needed to ensure that the probability of getting the target is larger than a given level.     

The perfect storm? How to explain the rise of intergovernmental conflicts in Spain? (1984–2014)

As in other federal-like countries, intergovernmental relations in Spain are characterised by a series of conflicts between central and regional governments. But, which factors explain this dynamic of contention? This investigation operationalises intergovernmental conflicts through a specific dataset constituted by the volume of contestations between regional and central executives (and vice versa) in Spain before the Constitutional Court. This research demonstrates that from 1984 to 2014 the periods of absolute majority at the Congress and the victory of peripheral nationalist parties at the head of autonomous communities increased the level of intergovernmental contestations.