This dissertation comprises three individual chapters. Chapter Two examines how free riding across neighbors influenced the diffusion of color television sets in rural China. Chapter Three tests for asymmetric information between a firm’s management and other investors concerning its patent output. Chapter Four discusses how knowledge stocks influence a patenting firm’s later diversification. Chapter Two documents the existence of a type of network effects - free riding across neighbors - in the consumption of color television sets in rural China, which reduces the propensity of non-owners to purchase. I construct a model of the timing of the purchase of a durable good in the presence of free riding, and test its key implications using household survey data in rural China. Chapter Three tests for asymmetric information between a firm’s management and other investors about its patent output by examining insider trading patterns and stock price changes in R&D intensive firms. It demonstrates that management has considerable information about its patent output beyond what is known to investors. It also shows that the predictive power of insider trading patterns on patent output comes from purchases rather than sales. Chapter Four discusses two sequential channels through which knowledge stocks may influence a firm’s later diversification. One is that firms with more knowledge are more likely to enter a new industry. The other is that firms’ businesses have a better chance of surviving, conditional on being formed. By examining U.S. public patenting firms in manufacturing sectors for 1984-1996, I find that knowledge stocks predict the likelihood of new industry entry when controlling for firm size. However, this predictive power is weakened when diversification effects are included. On the other hand, a survival study of newly established segments shows that initial knowledge stocks have significant positive effects on segment survival, whereas diversification effects are insignificant.

Cette étude revient sur la problématique du changement institutionnel que les pays de l’Europe de l’est traversaient depuis un peu plus de deux décennies et qui présente encore une acuité certaine pour saisir le sens des différences des performances économiques observées entre eux. Pour comprendre le succès inégal de ce processus, nous avons élargi dans une perspective évolutionniste, le cadre méthodologique néo-institutionnaliste par l’interrogation des systèmes anthropologiques qui portaient tout projet de société y compris l’idée même de faire de l’économie. La science anthropologique qui étudie les rigidités mentales, cherche à savoir pourquoi des sociétés si proches géographiquement ne fusionnent pas pendant des millénaires. Le principe de la diversité culturelle du monde permettait de comprendre comment les institutions informelles émergeaient et influençaient les performances économiques. Une augmentation du stock de connaissances doublée d’une transition démographique constituerait le socle de la transition mentale qui, accompagnée par des institutions fiables, serait capitale dans la réussite d’un processus de changement politique et économique. La révolution culturelle synonyme d’évolution des mentalités est un phénomène autonome qui précède dans le temps le développement économique et la modernité politique. S’appuyant d’emblée sur une trame de mentalités, le politique et l’économique n’agissaient pas dans le vide. Ils sont par nature endogènes et contingents, car une société ne changera jamais que si elle convient de la nécessité du changement. / This study returns to the issue of institutional change that Eastern European countries have experienced for the past two decades. This change still presents a certain acuteness to grasp the sense of the differences in the economical performances observed between the economies in transition. To understand the uneven success of this process we broadened in an evolutionist approach the neo-institutionalist methodological framework by questioning the anthropologic systems that supported all society projects including the very idea of doing economics. The anthropological science that studies mental rigidity is trying to understand why societies that are so geographically close do not merge for millenniums. The principle of the world’s cultural diversity allowed to understand how informal institutions emerged and influenced economic performance. An increase in the stock of knowledge combined with a demographic transition would constitute the base of mental transition which supported by reliable institutions would be decisive in the success of the process of political and economic change. Political and economic change is just the reflection of a mental transition taking part in the core structures of a society. The Cultural Revolution, synonym of evolution of the mentalities, is an autonomous phenomenon that precedes economic development and political modernity. Relying at once on a framework of mentalities, the politics and the economics never act without results. They are, by virtue of their nature, endogenous and contingent because a society can only change if it acknowledges the necessity for change.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:25:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silvia Maria Fernandes Almeida de Valentin.pdf: 1279463 bytes, checksum: 2acac4579f264838444b083742b004f7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-27 / Organizational learning is an important domain in the management of organizations given the growing complexity, dynamism and competitiveness of the current global scenario. The creation of, access to, transfer and effective use of knowledge created inside and outside organizations through the relationships established by organizations with their environs are important in this context. Conditions are required to facilitate and encourage the use and exploration of knowledge that already exists or that is new in different sources of learning and to generate knowledge within organizations. The purpose of this study was to verify the influence of learning stocks and flows at the individual, group, organizational and interorganizational levels (or at the network level) and the influence of such flows and stocks on the performance of the Brazilian institutions which are the object of this study. These organizations are predominantly public non-profit organizations linked to national institutions for research, education and healthcare which are part of scientific knowledge networks. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data on the perception of professionals in the institutions surveyed. One hundred and ten valid questionnaires were returned. A quantitative method was used to analyze the data employing confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling with the estimation of PLS-PM (Partial Least Squares-Path Modeling). Among the contributions of this work the following stand out: development and validation of a scale to measure the learning stock at the network level (inter-organizational), translation and validation of a scale to measure learning stocks and flows and modeling of inventories as a second-order latent variable to eliminate multicolinearity problems in the structural model. The five hypotheses were confirmed in that the misalignment between learning stocks and flows have a negative impact in the performance of institutions, whereas the learning stocks have a positive impact on performance which explains 78% of the variance of the perceived performance. These results confirm the results of the original research into the application of the 4I Learning model and the Strategic Learning Assessment Map (SLAM) and of the integrated approach to learning stocks and flows which occur within the organizations and in their relationships with their environs. It is also a contribution to the research on, study and practice of organizational learning in Brazil. The results also indicate that there should be an alignment between learning flows and existing learning stocks in the pursuit of continuous and organized renewal. / A aprendizagem organizacional constitui um importante domínio na gestão das organizações a considerar a complexidade, dinamismo e competitividade crescente que caracteriza o cenário global contemporâneo. A criação, acesso, transferência e uso efetivo dos conhecimentos gerados em ambiente interno e externamente, por meio da relação das organizações com o seu entorno são importantes neste contexto. Para tanto se requer condições que facilitam e estimulam a utilização e exploração dos novos e já existentes conhecimentos nas diferentes fontes de aprendizagem e geração de conhecimentos na organização. O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar a influência dos estoques e fluxos de aprendizagem nos níveis do indivíduo, grupo, organização e interorganização (ou de redes) no desempenho das instituições brasileiras objeto deste estudo, que são predominantemente de caráter público, sem fins lucrativos, vinculadas aos sistemas nacionais de pesquisa, educação e atenção à saúde e que integram redes de conhecimento científico. Para a coleta de dados foi utilizado um questionário estruturado, buscando levantar a percepção dos profissionais nas instituições pesquisadas, sendo obtidos 110 questionários válidos. Por meio de método quantitativo, para a análise dos dados foi utilizada a análise fatorial confirmatória e a modelagem em equações estruturais com estimação PLS-PM (Partial Least Squares-Path Modeling). Destacam-se as seguintes contribuições da presente pesquisa: desenvolvimento e validação de uma escala para a mensuração do estoque de aprendizagem no nível de redes (interorganizacional), tradução e validação de escala para a mensuração dos estoques e fluxos de aprendizagem e modelagem dos estoques como uma variável latente de segunda ordem para eliminar problemas de multicolinearidade no modelo estrutural. As cinco hipóteses foram confirmadas sendo que o desalinhamento entre os estoques e os fluxos de aprendizagem prejudicam o desempenho das instituições e os estoques de aprendizagem impactam positivamente o desempenho, explicando 78% da variância do desempenho percebido. Estes resultados confirmam os resultados da pesquisa de referência na aplicação do modelo de Aprendizagem 4I e a matriz SLAM e a abordagem integrada de estoques e fluxos de conhecimento que ocorrem no interior das organizações e na relação com o seu entorno, e representa também uma contribuição à pesquisa, estudo e prática da aprendizagem organizacional no Brasil. Ainda apontam os resultados, que os fluxos de aprendizagem deveriam ocorrer de forma alinhada aos estoques de conhecimento existentes, buscando a renovação constante e organizada.

The aim of this study was to conduct a thorough theoretical study on the relevant aspects involved in knowledge management and organizational learning, and thence assess the level of organisational learning within the ferrometallurgical industry. From the outcomes of the assessment, recommendations to improve the state of affairs were to be made. Knowledge can be defined as actionable information. The creation, acquisition, sharing and leveraging of knowledge in today's industries are critical. Knowledge is now termed the fourth productive resource, and some authors claim, with some justification, that the widespread knowledge within a company is the only source of sustainable competitive advantage. With this in mind, it is obvious that companies need to nurture knowledge creation and effective utilisation thereof in order to meet organisational goals. Knowledge can be codified if it is explicit, but needs to be transferred using personalisation if it is tacit. Implicitness of tacit knowledge further confounds the issue. Knowledge management practices underpin the process of organisational learning. The level of organisational learning within the ferrometallurgical industry in South Africa was assessed, using a survey questionnaire obtained from the Harvard Business School. The results show that the industry lags behind the medians in the ten constructs measured, and much work will be required to significantly improve the situation. Key areas of concern are in the areas of psychological safety, time for reflection, education and training, and collection of information. As a consequence, a practical strategy for improving the state of knowledge management and organisational learning in the ferrometallurgical industry was developed. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

The aim of this study was to conduct a thorough theoretical study on the relevant aspects involved in knowledge management and organizational learning, and thence assess the level of organisational learning within the ferrometallurgical industry. From the outcomes of the assessment, recommendations to improve the state of affairs were to be made. Knowledge can be defined as actionable information. The creation, acquisition, sharing and leveraging of knowledge in today's industries are critical. Knowledge is now termed the fourth productive resource, and some authors claim, with some justification, that the widespread knowledge within a company is the only source of sustainable competitive advantage. With this in mind, it is obvious that companies need to nurture knowledge creation and effective utilisation thereof in order to meet organisational goals. Knowledge can be codified if it is explicit, but needs to be transferred using personalisation if it is tacit. Implicitness of tacit knowledge further confounds the issue. Knowledge management practices underpin the process of organisational learning. The level of organisational learning within the ferrometallurgical industry in South Africa was assessed, using a survey questionnaire obtained from the Harvard Business School. The results show that the industry lags behind the medians in the ten constructs measured, and much work will be required to significantly improve the situation. Key areas of concern are in the areas of psychological safety, time for reflection, education and training, and collection of information. As a consequence, a practical strategy for improving the state of knowledge management and organisational learning in the ferrometallurgical industry was developed. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.