Here are some of my notes for the first day of the World Conference on Intellectual Capital for Communities:

Lucien Karpik: Economics of Singularities

• New Public Mangement (NPM)
• Measurement
  • Value of scientific paper = Value of the journal publishing it
  • Measurement tools replace peer review
• Basic assumptions from “mainstream economics” are wrong but not questioned
  • Efficiency infreases with competition
  • Profit seeking strengthen competition
• Market Theory does not apply to NPM (no demand/supply, no price, no self regulation mechanisms)
• Tournament Theory (sport competition) may be better
• Economics of Singularities (Multi-dimensionality, Incommensurability, Radical Quality Uncertainty)
  • Refusal of the gain/competition/efficiency proposition as a general proposal
  • Refusal of the postulate of goods and services general equivalence
  • Refusal of the usual goods and services definitions based either on differentiation or the distinction between “experience” and “research” products
• Homo singularis: Max Weber – differentiation of symbolic action (value criteria) and material action (profit maximization)
• Judgement devices in business (brands, critics, guides, networks, top-10) and research (journals, critics, networks)
• Amount of citation as quality indicator

Tojo Yoshiaki: The Japanese Knowledge/IC Agenda

• Intellectual Asset Management and Reporting
• 3rd Innovation Survey
• Wici Initiative
• Infoplosion (35ZByte)
• Data-driven Descision Making (DDD), Data-driven Innovation
• McKinsey Big Data Publication
• http://www.ytojo.com

Alistair Nolan: New Sources of Growth

• A 2-year OECD project
• Definition intangible assets from Baruch Lev: “claims on future benefits that do not have a physical or financial embodiment”
• Nakamura (2001), Corrado, Hulten and Sichel (2005)
• Intellectual Assets
  • Computerised information (software, databases)
  • Innovative properties (patents, copyrights, trademarks, designs)
  • Economic competencies(?) (brands)
• In 1998 companies started to invest more in intangibles than in tangibles
• Reasons:
  • rising educational attainment
  • many products become more knowledge-intensive
  • with globalisation/deregulation competitive advantage increasingly driven by innovation
  • fragmentation of value chain
  • new ICT increase the value of intangibles
  • growth of the service sector
• Van Ark (2009)
• In the project OECD will focus on measurement, taxation, data, corporate reporting, competition, knowledge networks and markets, global value chain
• # of Design Schools in china went from 40 to over 400 (“our clothes are Italian, French and German, so the profits are all leaving China … We need to create brands, and fast”)

Vincent Delbecque: Investments in Intangibles and Economic Growth Performance

• Types of Intangibles
  • Software & Databases
  • R&D
  • Artistic originals
  • Architecture and engineering design
  • Advertising
  • Organization
  • Training
• Retail, Telecom, Pharma, Aircraft invest a lot in Intangibles
• Findings
  • intangible investment has a positive impact on production
  • intangible asset is highly industry-specific – therefor need for industry-level innovation policy (no one-size-fits-all)

Bruno Menard: Human Capital and the Digital Enterprise

• Bruno is President of cigref and CIO of Sanofi-Aventis
• “Knowledge management is key for our companies”
• cigref mission: “promoting the digital culture as a source of innovation and performance”
• “Digital society requires the company to open itself up!”
• Involving all departments and all skill-sets within the company in preparing a digital strategy, addressing every aspect of the company’s business model and internal culture.
• A digital enterprise is a company with a digital vision and a digital plan for every aspect of its business model

Pierre-Etienne Franc: When Human Development meets with Business Performance

• The Air Liquide Experience
• Emergence, Growth, Maturity
• Leadership: Performance is what we do, Responsibility is how we act
• Definition of CSR is quite diverse (Goldman Sachs, Storebrand etc.)
• Key actors were shareholders, employees, environment, innovation, then governance, communities, customers werde added
• AL University (started in 2009) should raise employee triaining to 25h/year
• Innovation rate as a KPI

Peter Pawlowsky: Competitive Advantage KM 2010 Practices in Germany

• 3000 companies were analysed
• Longitudinal analysis 2006 (n=2342)-2010 (3401)
• Top fields of action
  • Internal information systems
  • project learnings
  • internet access in the workplace
  • transfer of experiences
  • continuous HR training
  • identification of strategic knowledge gaps
  • networking of experts
  • implementation of new ideas
• In the next 12 month transfer of experiences, project learning and knowledge strategies are the top fields companies plan to invest
• Knowledge identification top 4: direct customer relation, evaluation of customer complaints, analysis of mistakes, identification of key employees
• Used knowledge lifecycle: knowledge identifikation, diffusion, retention, use
• In all branches 15-33% of the companies have a high level of KM activities
• Top 3 market challenges: quality competition, price competition, legal regulations
• Customer oriented strategy, HRM-strategy, Innovation-strategy, Cost-strategy
• KM is especially effective in combination with HR and QM strategies

Waltraud Ritter: Open Innovation in the emergent cleantech cluster in Guangdong

• The Greater Pearl River Delta: http://www.thegprd.com
• UNHSR: State of World Cities Report
• Stakeholders: Universities, research institutions, government agencies

Dagmar Wayde-Koehler: Art and People

• Art should be experienced in the first step personally (without experts)
• being vs. becoming (allow yourself not to know)
• Oubey.com videos

Andreas Brandner: The Art of Knowing

• Art can be best use to communicate tacit knowledge
• Art is a special, aesthetic way to capture and to transfer knowledge: It’s strength is based on the potential for a mobilisation of implicit knowledge through holistic identity, symbolism, philosophy of life (“weltanschauung”), paradoxy, delight/lust, humor, metaphysics, immateriality, seismography
• Research of effect of intervention by art in enterprises (Schnugg 2010)
• Art and philosophy/science were closely integrated until late 1800s (e.g. school of athens).
• Art Brut (Jean Dubuffet, 1945)
• “Triggering thoughts on extending the idea of a knowledge society towards a societal society”
• Projects: knowledge column, vienna.knowledge.space, knowledge.art.project