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Forms of knowledge and modes of innovation
Morten Berg Jensen, Björn Johnson, Edward Lorenz, Bengt-Åke Lundvall, BA Lundvall
The learning economy and the economics of hope 155, 2007
This chapter is about the tension between two ideal type modes of learning and innovation. One mode is based on the production and use of codified scientific and technical knowledge namely Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) mode, while the other one is an experience-based mode of learning through Doing, Using and Interacting (DUI-mode). At the level of the firm, this tension may be seen in the need to reconcile knowledge management strategies prescribing the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as tools for codifying and sharing knowledge with strategies emphasizing the role played by informal communication and communities of practice in mobilizing tacit knowledge for problem solving and learning. The tension between the STI-and DUI-modes corresponds to two different approaches to national innovation systems: One perspective focusing on the role of formal processes of R&D that produce explicit and codified knowledge and another perspective focusing on the learning from informal interaction within and between organizations resulting in competence building often with tacit elements.
There is, of course, an important body of empirical and historical work showing that both these modes of learning and innovation play a role in most sectors, the role being different depending on the sector characteristics as well as the strategy of the firm (von Hippel 1976; Rothwell 1977; Rosenberg 1982; Pavitt 1984). Recent models of innovation emphasize that innovation is an interactive process in which firms interact both with customers and suppliers
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Public research and industrial innovations in Germany
Marian Beise, Harald Stahl
Research policy 28 (4), 397-422, 1999
This paper deals with the effects of publicly funded research at universities, polytechnics and federal research laboratories on industrial innovations in Germany. We discuss the characteristics of companies that benefit from the findings of public research institutions. In questioning 2300 companies, we found that less than one-tenth of product- or process-innovating firms introduced innovations between 1993 and 1995 that would not have been developed without public research. These new products amount to approximately 5% of all new product sales. Universities are cited by firms with publicly supported innovations as the most important source, although publicly financed laboratories get almost as many citations. Big science laboratories are almost invisible, suggesting that their technology transfer to industrial firms still lacks effectiveness. Firms also tend to cite research institutions that are located close to the firm. But contrary to the widely held opinion that proximity to public research institutions does promote collaboration between firms and public research and increase the amount of received knowledge spillovers, we found no higher probability of publicly supported innovations for firms in Germany that are located near universities or polytechnics. However, the firm's own R&D activities instead support the ability to absorb the findings of public research and turn them into innovations. Additionally, firms with high R&D intensities cite remote public research institutes more frequently than less R&D-intensive firms, suggesting that in Germany, high-technology does not depend on co-location of public and private research.