How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Undertaking a review of the literature is an important part of any research project. The researcher both maps and assesses the relevant intellectual territory in order to specify a research question which will further develop the knowledge base. However, traditional 'narrative' reviews frequently lack thoroughness, and in many cases are not undertaken as genuine pieces of investigatory science. Consequently they can lack a means for making sense of what the collection of studies is saying. These reviews can be biased by the researcher and often lack rigour. Furthermore, the use of reviews of the available evidence to provide insights and guidance for intervention into operational needs of practitioners and policymakers has largely been of secondary importance. For practitioners, making sense of a mass of often-contradictory evidence has become progressively harder. The quality of evidence underpinning decision-making and action has been questioned, for inadequate or incomplete evidence seriously impedes policy formulation and implementation. In exploring ways in which evidence-informed management reviews might be achieved, the authors evaluate the process of systematic review used in the medical sciences. Over the last fifteen years, medical science has attempted to improve the review process by synthesizing research in a systematic, transparent, and reproducible manner with the twin aims of enhancing the knowledge base and informing policymaking and practice. This paper evaluates the extent to which the process of systematic review can be applied to the management field in order to produce a reliable knowledge stock and enhanced practice by developing context-sensitive research. The paper highlights the challenges in developing an appropriate methodology.

Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review

Undertaking a review of the literature is an important part of any research project. The researcher both maps and assesses the relevant intellectual territory in order to specify a research question which will further develop the knowledge hase. However, traditional 'narrative' reviews frequently lack thoroughness, and in many cases are not undertaken as genuine pieces of investigatory science. Consequently they can lack a means for making sense of what the collection of studies is saying. These reviews can he hiased by the researcher and often lack rigour. Furthermore, the use of reviews of the available evidence to provide insights and guidance for intervention into operational needs of practitioners and policymakers has largely been of secondary importance. For practitioners, making sense of a mass of often-contrad ictory evidence has hecome progressively harder. The quality of evidence underpinning decision-making and action has heen questioned, for inadequate or incomplete evidence seriously impedes policy formulation and implementation. In exploring ways in which evidence-informed management reviews might be achieved, the authors evaluate the process of systematic review used in the medical sciences. Over the last fifteen years, medical science has attempted to improve the review process hy synthesizing research in a systematic, transparent, and reproducihie manner with the twin aims of enhancing the knowledge hase and informing policymaking and practice. This paper evaluates the extent to which the process of systematic review can be applied to the management field in order to produce a reliable knowledge stock and enhanced practice by developing context-sensitive research. The paper highlights the challenges in developing an appropriate methodology.

http://www.oni.uerj.br/media/downloads/1-s2.0-S0048733399000554-main.pdf

The dynamics of innovation: from national systems and "Mode" 2 to a triple helix of university-industry-government relations.

Abstract The Triple Helix of university–industry–government relations is compared with alternative models for explaining the current research system in its social contexts. Communications and negotiations between institutional partners generate an overlay that increasingly reorganizes the underlying arrangements. The institutional layer can be considered as the retention mechanism of a developing system. For example, the national organization of the system of innovation has historically been important in determining competition. Reorganizations across industrial sectors and nation states, however, are induced by new technologies (biotechnology, ICT). The consequent transformations can be analyzed in terms of (neo-)evolutionary mechanisms. University research may function increasingly as a locus in the “laboratory” of such knowledge-intensive network transitions.

The dynamics of innovation: from National Systems and

In this provocative and broad-ranging work, a distinguished team of authors argues that the ways in which knowledge  scientific, social and cultural  is produced are undergoing fundamental changes at the end of the twentieth century. They claim that these changes mark a distinct shift into a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies. Identifying a range of features of the new moder of knowledge production  reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity  the authors show the connections between these features and the changing role of knowledge in social relations. While the knowledge produced by research and development in science and technology (both public and industrial) is accorded central concern, the authors also outline the changing dimensions of social scientific and humanities knowledge and the relations between the production of knowledge and its dissemination through education. Placing science policy and scientific knowledge in its broader context within contemporary societies, this book will be essential reading for all those concerned with the changing nature of knowledge, with the social study of science, with educational systems, and with the relations between R&D and social, economic and technological development.

The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies

Preface. Chapter 1: The Transformation of Society. Chapter 2: Beyond Modernity -- Breaching the Frontiers. Chapter 3: The Co--Evolution of Science and Society. Chapter 4: The Context Speaks Back. Chapter 5: The Transformation of Knowledge Institutions. Chapter 6: The Role of Universities in Knowledge Production. Chapter 7: How does Contextualization Happen?. Chapter 8: Weakly Contextualized Knowledge. Chapter 9: Strongly Contextualized Knowledge. Chapter 10: Contextualization in the Middle Range. Chapter 11: From Reliable Knowledge to Socially Robust Knowledge. Chapter 12: The Epistemological Core?. Chapter 13: Science Moves to the Agora. Chapter 14: Socially Distributed Expertise. Chapter 15: Re--Visioning Science. Chapter 16: Re--Thinking Science is not Science Re--Thought. References. Index

Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty

Introduction: `Mode 2' Revisited: The New Production of Knowledge

Structure and institutions state and society science and culture understanding mass higher education.

The meanings of mass higher education

Contemporary transformations of time and space internationalizing British higher education - students and institutions internationalizing British higher education - policy perspectives internationalization in Europe internationalization in South Africa a Commonwealth perspective on the globalization of higher education the role of the European Union in the internationalization of higher education globalization and concurrent challenges for higher education massification, internationalization and globalization.

/pdf/the-globalization-of-higher-education-4b83wb3f53.pdf

Peter Scott

Papers

The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies

Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty

Introduction: `Mode 2' Revisited: The New Production of Knowledge

The meanings of mass higher education

The Globalization of Higher Education