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SO we should explore how knowledge is embodied into real forms.First of all we should focus on intellectual property. It is a very contradictive notion. Manyimportant problems from this research area are found in “Intellectual Property Rights: Innovation,Governance and Institutional Environment” (ANDERSEN, 2006). The book explores the role of theregulation of intellectual property rights and current debates affecting business, industry sectors,and society today.
The most important problems connected with our thesis are: the marketeconomy and the scientific commons, public interest and the public domain in the era of corporatedominance, intellectual property in the case of developing and less developed countries; patentcontroversies; knowledge spillovers from the patenting process.29Another incarnation of knowledge is so-called General Purpose Technology (GPT). Emergence ofGPT is a key factor of economic growth, But can we apply our understanding of GPT and theirinfluence to the problem of development? This problem is solved by Richard Lipsey, KennethCarlaw and Klifford Bekar in “Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies and LongTerm Economic Growth” (LIPSEY, CARLAW, CLIFFORD, 2005).
This work discusses technology asrevolution and provides a survey of GPTs in Western history, but the most important part of thebook is a discussion of the emergence of sustained extensive growth in the West. It helps us tounderstand whether the concept of GPT may be applied to economy on the stage of development.The book is also useful because of formal models of GPT-driven sustained growth provided in it anddiscussions of technology enhancement policies.Technology is the third important embodiment of knowledge.
In neoclassics it is the onlyknowledge-based category. May it be convenient to limit out exploration only to technology? Theanswer gives Caroll Pursell in “The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology” (PURSELL,2007). He presents a brief introduction to the social history of American technology and discussesimport of the industrial revolution, improvement in transportation; expansion of Americanmanufactures; mechanization of farming; creating an urban environment. The most importantresult for us is that the development of American economy is the sense of knowledge cannot beexplained only in terms of technology.Technology is a core category in “Meaning in technology” by Arnold Pacey (PACEY, 1999), whoexplores a vision of the meaning of technology and some related sciences, arguing that technologyis primarily an expression of varied human purposes.
Pacey argues that to understand whattechnology means to those who invent, build, or just use its products, it is necessary to investigatehow the aesthetic is interwined with the practical; how the giving of meaning is related to buildingand making; and how work with tools or with hands may have some correspondence with musicalexperience. He considers the role of visual thinking and of tactile experience in science andengineering and addresses the social meanings of technology, which interact with the personalresponses and “existential” experience of individuals. Pacey offers therefore a very original andinteresting approach to technology that without any doubt enriches understanding of this complexphenomenon through investigation of culture and mental influence.Finishing the discussion of technology we should also turn to the book “The social shaping oftechnology” by Donald Mackenzie and Judy Wajman (MACKENZIE, WAJMAN, 1999).
Mackenzieand Wajman examine the ways technology is social shaped. They explore some general issues andpresent case studies of the social shaping of technology, the social shaping of the technology ofbiological reproduction and domestic technology, and the social shaping of military technology.This work is particularly important for our thesis because we are going to expand a narrowmanufacturing-based understanding of knowledge (knowledge = technology = the way oftransforming resources into output). This understanding must be complemented with the conceptof a wider social context.
This context is created first of all with institutions, so we move on tothem.Institutions is a key notion in our thesis. But how institutions influence knowledge growth andeconomic development itself? A good insight may be delivered by two books. Mark Gradstein and30Kai Konrad in “Institutions and Norms in Economic Development” (GRADSTEIN, KONRAD, 2006)discusses the quality of a country’s governing bodies, and the social norms that govern collectivedecision making.
Through the lens of institutions there are explained such problems as thedevelopment puzzle, pre-colonial centralization and institutional quality, political economy ofeducation, the theory of corruption, political exclusion, incomplete contracting in the shadow offuture, information and incomplete investor protection.
The conclusion is that the institutionalapproach is very fruitful for development problems.The second book deals with long-term changes based on knowledge accumulation. It’s very usefulbecause of numerous points connected with Industrial Revolution in Europe that is the brightestpage in the economic history of the modern world. Dutch scholars Wilfred Dolfsma and Luc Soeteprepared a work called “Understanding the Dynamics of a Knowledge Economy” (DOLFSMA,SOETE, 2006).
This book sheds light on such complex questions as the European Enlightenment asa factor in modern economic growth; reputation, leadership, and communities of practice in thecase of open source software development; the coordination and codification of knowledge insidea network; governance forces shaping economic development in a regional information society;knowledge, the knowledge economy, and welfare theory. This book is very useful because itprovides applications of knowledge and institutional approach to such important areas ofeconomics as the welfare theory and regional development.Finally we should explore the interconnection between all above mentioned notions – economicdevelopment, knowledge, institutions. A core phenomenon here is entrepreneurship.
A role ofentrepreneurship in knowledge-based development is discusses in “Entrepreneurship, Innovationand Economic Growth” by David Audretsch (AUDRETSCH, 2006). He investigates issues inentrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth, concentrating on geography, evolution, andpolicy. From this work we can borrow a complex concept of entrepreneurship that may bepresented as a key factor of development that should be regarded in connection with otherimportant factors such as government policy and geography.Another important work is “Dynamics of innovation: Strategic and managerial implications”(BROCKHOFF, CHAKRABARTI, HAUSCHILDT, 1999).
It investigates the dynamics of innovativeprocesses, focusing on the dynamics of strategy formation and project management. The bookillustrates how industry fusion changes the dynamics of competition and how to effectivelymanage a company through industry fusion; the dynamics of technological competencies,organizational adaptation and innovation; a longitudinal assessment of strategic dynamics andcorporate performance; the evaluation of dynamic technological developments by means of patentdata; innovation objectives, managerial education, and firm performance. This book enriches uswith deep understanding of real performance of knowledge-based industries and thus allows us toevaluate their contribution to development.If the previous book deals with microeconomic approach, “Accelerating and Globalization ofAmerica: The Role for Information Technology” by Catherine Mann (MANN, 2006) deals withmacroeconomic view.
Mann examines the pattern of globalization of the information technology(IT) sector and how globalization reduces the prices of these products. She discusses why ananalysis of accelerating globalization starts with the more narrow focus on IT products and the IT31and communication industries. Mann presents data and analysis on the linkages between U.S.Firms and global marketplaces for IT production and demand and examines the results of deeperglobalization of IT. In spite of the fact that Mann deals with IT industry this book provides a goodpanorama of modern globalized knowledge economy.Finishing our review it is necessary to mention some innovative theoretic tools for research ofknowledge, knowledge economy and knowledge-based development.
This is the subject of“Innovation, Evolution and Complexity Theory” by Koen Frenken (FRENKEN, 2006). Frenkenexplores the evolution of complex artifacts in an attempt to contribute to the evolutionaryeconomics of innovation. He discusses technological paradigms; entropy statistics.
But he does notjust work out instruments, but he also demonstrates their research opportunities by exploring theearly evolution of stream engines; trajectories in air-craft and helicopters; and the advent ofportable computers.32.
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