Does Combinatorial Knowledge Lead to a Better Innovation Performance of Firms?

The knowledge base concept in the past was often applied in its “pure form”, i.e. it was assumed that there are dominant knowledge bases in particular sectors and firms shaping knowledge and innovation processes and related networks. For “analytical sectors” such as biotech, it has been argued that codified knowledge generated by universities and R&D organizations is the key for innovation, whereas “synthetic sectors” such as machinery innovate more incrementally by recombining existing knowledge often drawn from suppliers or service firms. Empirical literature has partly confirmed these patters, but also shown more complex knowledge processes. More recently it has been argued that combinations of different knowledge bases might enhance the innovation performance of firms. For example in “analytical sectors”, firms might benefit not just from new and basic knowledge generated by research, but also from recombining existing and applied knowledge or by drawing on symbolic knowledge. Combinatorial knowledge bases might also be relevant for “synthetic” and “symbolic sectors”, but in different forms. This study investigates for the ICT sector in regions of Austria if the reliance on combinatorial knowledge leads to a better innovation performance than the use of more narrow knowledge bases.     

The notebook and the laboratory – types of knowledge in German piano-making, 1880–1930

ABSTRACT

Between the second half of the nineteenth century and the 1930s, German piano making changed from a craft to an industry. Nevertheless, piano makers still needed specific working knowledge to produce quality instruments. This knowledge was bound to individuals and transmitted informally from one person to another. The piano makers took working knowledge as the core of their practice. But in the shift to industrial methods of production, the key question was how to translate working knowledge into formal knowledge—to articulate what such knowledge meant and how it might be applied. Using the case study of the German piano making factory Grotrian-Steinweg, I show how the piano maker Kurt Grotrian used his notebooks to grapple with the problem of formalizing his working knowledge. At this company, an acoustic laboratory was established, in whose reports formalized knowledge was stored due to the transition of piano making from a craft to an industry.     

Work and wonder at the weekend: on emotions in feminist geographical praxis

This article explores intersections between academic work and emotional work at a feminist geography reading weekend held by the Women and Geography Study Group of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers in the UK in 2006. It points to the importance of the fleeting, often unreported, spaces of feminist geographical praxis and of inserting these in our disciplinary histories. Using a performative textual strategy it offers a poly-vocal reflection on the complex, challenging and productive experiences of this kind of academic workspace. In so doing it contributes to feminist engagements with the practices of neo-liberal academia, to debates about the emotional geographies of feminist geographical work, and to discussions of the value of activities outside the norms of academia in providing potentially supportive and creative spaces for geographical praxis.     

WONDER: FROM POETICS TO POLITICS

Marnie Hughes-Warrington's book, History as Wonder: Beginning with Historiography, invites readers to reconsider the power of wonder as a critical concept whose theoretical implications go far beyond its evident ability to inspire historical research. Wonder is supposedly a neutral weapon for historians, one that is limited to promoting incessant curiosity about the past. Attempting to move from a poetic and aesthetic vision of wonder to a consideration of the concept's ethical and political uses, Hughes-Warrington claims that “historians since Herodotus have engaged with or responded to the efforts of thinkers who attempt to make general sense of the world, metaphysicians” (xii). In what follows, I challenge Hughes-Warrington's approach by emphasizing and exploring the epistemological questions History as Wonder raises about who holds the power to establish a conventional sense of the world and to what extent historical research may offer general explanations of the world without succumbing to precritical assumptions or metahistorical reductionisms.     

Science and Technology at the World Bank, 1968–83

The World Bank was an important supporter of science and technology during the period 1968–83. President Robert McNamara’s poverty oriented strategy created challenges that led to technological research, technology assessment and technological innovation in agriculture, forestry, civil works construction, sanitation, and many other fields of development. The Bank also pioneered in financing governmental mechanisms to stimulate industrial innovation. On the other hand, its support to science and technology was limited by lack of an overall policy and systematic support from top management, as well as by cumbersome procedures designed for large infrastructural projects. Even so, its financial independence, its strong leadership, its experienced and non‐political technical staff, and its ability to scale up successful innovations through its project lending, made it an important promoter of appropriate technology in the developing world.     

滕州前掌大墓地“于屯”村IIIM308出土铜器的科学分析

“于屯”村北墓区为前掌大“史”氏族团“分裂”而来的“鸟”氏支族墓区,其中IIIM308和IIIM309为“鸟”氏支族具有特殊身份的高级贵族夫妻异穴并葬墓。本文对IIIM308出土8件铜礼器进行材质分析及制作工艺考察,8件铜礼器的材质以铅锡青铜为主,皆为浑铸成型,采用了金属垫片、加强筋等工艺措施来保证铸造质量。9件“鸟”字铭文铜器,“鸟”字铭文形状可分为两组,可能系两个不同铸造作坊或前后两批次铸造。     

Agent-based simulation of the spatial evolution of the historical population in China

This paper presents an agent-based simulation (ABS) and cellular automata (CA) coupled model to simulate the spatial evolution of the population of China over the past 2000 years. In the model, agents are used to simulate individuals who live in a geographic environment represented by the CA. The choice to migrate is influenced by climate change, potential agricultural productivity change, and waves of mass migrations. Using the simulation, we can observe the spatial evolution of the population, as well as the shift of the population center of gravity, and we can analyze the driving forces of these changing spatial patterns.     

中国古代马戏考

"胡服骑射"是马戏产生的重要条件,"官马民养"是马戏产生的基础,汉唐帝王对舞乐百戏的大力提倡是马戏迅速发展的主要推动力量.