How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

El artículo tiene como objetivo evaluar el nivel de desarrollo de la capacidad de absorción realizada (RACAP) en las Pyme colombianas. Se parte de una muestra de 363 Pyme colombianas (Dane,2012), se usa una revisión de literatura con apoyo del análisis de contenido y un modelo de regresión lineal, que permiten mostrar la existencia de una correlación lineal positiva entre la adquisición y asimilación del conocimiento externo en las organizaciones objeto de estudio,. Palabras clave: Capacidades de absorción, capacidades de absorción potencial, medición de las capacidades de absorción ABSTRACT:

Measurement of potential absorption capacity in Colombia's innovative companies [Medición de la capacidad de absorción potencial en las empresas innovadoras de Colombia]

This paper aims to investigate whether there are relationships among corporate disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) and firms’ operational (ROA), financial (ROE) and market performance (Tobin’s Q), and if these relationships are positives or negatives or even neutral.,The study sample covers US S&P 500-listed companies during the period 2009 to 2018. Panel regression analysis was used to examine the study hypotheses and achieve the study aims.,The results showed that ESG disclosure positively affects a firms’ performance measures. However, measuring ESG sub-components separately showed that environmental (EVN) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure is negatively associated with ROA and ROE. EVN and CSR disclosure is positively related to Tobin’s Q. Further, corporate governance (CG) disclosure is positively related to ROA and Tobin’s Q, and negatively related to ROE. More importantly, ESG, CSR, EVN and CG tend to be higher with firms that have high assets and high financial leverage. Furthermore, the higher level of ESG, EVN, CSR and CG disclosure, the higher the ROA and ROE.,The study limns a vision of the role of ESG on firm performance. This study tries to determine whether there are relationships among all ESG disclosure and FP, and if they are positive, negative or even neutral.

ESG impact on performance of US S&P 500-listed firms

Knowledge transfer and organizational performance and business process: past, present and future researches

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on the reputation and performance of Italian companies.,The paper exploits a unique data set of 452 non-listed companies that obtained a reputational assessment from the Italian Competition Authority (ICA). To test the hypotheses, this study implemented several regression analyses.,Results support the argument that human capital efficiency is a key driver of corporate reputation. Findings also reveal that companies, which obtained reputational rating under ICA scrutiny, show a positive relationship between IC elements and various measures of financial performance.,The study focuses on a single country; it is not free from the imprecisions of Pulic’s VAIC model.,This paper recommends companies that are interested to achieve a robust reputation should consider the human capital as a strategic intangible asset. Second, the results suggest that companies with an ICA reputational rating are able to leverage their intangibles to potentiate performance and competitiveness.,This is the first empirical investigation on the contribution of IC in generating value for corporate reputation. Additionally, the study contributes to the literature on the link between IC and performance by examining a sample of firms not yet explored in prior research.

Exploring the impact of intellectual capital on company reputation and performance

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate performance and Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAICTM) on the one hand, and the relationship between the variations in market value and the variations in VAIC on the other hand. Design/methodology/approach – Starting from the VAIC model, 23 Italian listed companies were examined with the aim of investigating the relationship between VAIC and the performance of the firms in the sample. The analysis was divided into two stages. In the first stage, eight models of linear regression were estimated to verify the presence of a positive and statistically significant relationship between M/BV and VAIC and between accounting performance indicators (ROE, ROI, ROS) and the VAIC. In the second stage, six other models were tested, considering as an independent variable the variations in VAIC and the variations in profitability indicators. Findings – The outcomes of the application stress the importance of VAIC in the explanatio...

Intellectual capital and performance of listed companies: empirical evidence from Italy

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the entrepreneur in the knowledge transfer (KT) process of a start-up enterprise and the ways that role should change during the development phase to ensure mid-term business survival and growth.,An in-depth, qualitative case study of Birra Flea, an Italian Craft Brewery, is presented and analysed using Liyanage et al.’s (2009) framework to identify the key components of the KT process, including relevant knowledge, key actors, transfer steps and the criteria for assessing its effectiveness and success.,The entrepreneur played a fundamental and crucial role in the start-up process, acting as a selective and passionate broker for the KT process. As Birra Flea matures and moves into the development phase, the role of the entrepreneur as KT’s champion needs to be integrated and distributed throughout the organisation, with the entrepreneur serving as a performance controller.,This study enriches the knowledge management literature by applying a framework designed to provide a general description of KT, with some modifications, to a single case study to demonstrate its effectiveness in differentiating types of knowledge and outlining how KT can be configured to support essential business functions in an SME.,The analysis systematises the KT mechanisms that govern the start-up phase of an award-winning SME, with suggestions for how to manage KT during the development phase. Seldom are practitioners given insight into the mechanics of a successful SME start-up; this analysis serves as a practical guide for those wishing to implement effective KT strategies to emulate Birra Flea’s success.,The world’s economy thrives on SMEs, yet many fail as start-ups before they even have a chance to reach the development phase, presenting a motivation to study the early stages of SMEs. This study addresses that gap with an in-depth theoretical analysis of successful, effective KT processes in an SME, along with practical implications to enhance the knowledge, experience and skills of the actors that sustain these vital economic enterprises.

Knowledge transfer in a start-up craft brewery

The paper extends previous research on the topic of intellectual capital (IC) and the relationship between ownership concentration (OC) and firm performance. The ambitious goal of this work is to answer three questions: (1) Whether there is a relationship between IC and firm performance; (2) Whether there is a relationship between the efficiency of IC and the ownership structure of the Italian listed companies; and (3) If the performance of Italian listed companies is influenced by the ownership structure and by the efficiency of IC. The results obtained by investigating on a sample of Italian listed companies during the period 2002-2011 suggest the lack of relationship between the efficiency of IC and the performance of the companies examined, but show a significant relationship among OC, the efficiency of IC, and firm performance.

Ownership Concentration, Intellectual Capital, and Firm Performance: Evidence from Italy

Intellectual Capital and Business Performance in Professional Football Clubs: Evidence from a Longitudinal Analysis

Intellectual capital (IC) is an important source of value for companies The competitive firm invests in new productive ideas through scientific and technological researches of the human factor and services The traditional factors of “old economy” based on physical assets have been replaced or at least reinforced, with the belief that the “new economy” takes its steps mainly through IC The knowledge workers, at every organizational level, have the knowledge that allows the organization to be competitive and deal with the complexity of the environment by creating intellectual added value In particular, the proposed analysis consists with an empirical way to show other financial indicators and market-to-book (MTB) value from the perspective of creating value for shareholders based on the dynamics of companies’ performance, as value-added intellectual capital (VAICTM) is capable of expressing a direct relationship with the return on equity (ROE) The traditional financial information cannot ensure the high efficiency of a stock market and the need for IC reporting to explain intangible asset contribution in company performance

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2217560_code1917032.pdf?abstractid=2191011&mirid=2

Domenico Celenza

Papers

Intellectual capital and performance of listed companies: empirical evidence from Italy

Knowledge transfer in a start-up craft brewery

Ownership Concentration, Intellectual Capital, and Firm Performance: Evidence from Italy

Intellectual Capital and Business Performance in Professional Football Clubs: Evidence from a Longitudinal Analysis

The Relationship between Intellectual Capital (IC) and Stock Market Performance: Empirical Evidence from Italy