Science, Business and Universities

Cooperation, Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship

Joanna Duda, Tomasz Bernat, Joanna Duda, Tomasz Bernat

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000572193
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Unternehmertum

Cooperation between science and business (S2B cooperation) is a very important issue from the points of view of the domestic economy, companies, and universities. This is mainly because such cooperation is a catalyst for faster and reliable development – not only of enterprises, but also of the entire economy. Thanks to S2B cooperation, enterprises can gain and commercialize new and ground-breaking solutions. Universities in turn can give their research a more practical dimension to increase its economic applicability, which helps universities prepare future staff to work in modern enterprises.

The aim of this publication is to indicate how cooperation between universities and business can be implemented in an international dimension. It shows the role of modern universities in supporting the development of enterprise and entire economies as well as the role of modern enterprises that use resources located in universities (including knowledge resources). This unique combination has a positive impact on the results and developmental opportunities for each of them. Any potential obtained in this manner is the basis for creating a competitive advantage on the market.

This book is devoted to a specific area of cooperation between enterprises and universities and will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship, knowledge management, international relations, and higher education.

Part IBusiness ActivitiesRelationships and Cooperation

1Building Knowledge-Based Economy on the Basis of Research and Development in Fields of Science and Business

Katarzyna Żak

DOI: 10.4324/9781003258278-2

1. Introduction

We have been witnessing ongoing transformations that consist of a gradual transition from a material-intensive economy based on economies of scale to an economy that is based on knowledge and innovative technologies. The very notion of a knowledge-based economy (KBE) is often replaced by the notion of a new economy, which is related to the growing mass application of information and communication technologies (ICT), which increase the efficiency of business activity. There is also the notion of a knowledge-driven economy, which is used to indicate the emergence of new economy structures under the influence of knowledge development. Other frequently used terms include post-capitalist society (Drucker, 1999, pp. 9–12), post-industrial society (Bell, 1976, p. xiii), third wave (Toffler, 1995, pp. 31–32), and knowledge society (Naisbitt, 1997).

In one of his publications, P. F. Drucker states that the present times (i.e., the era of the knowledge society) is an economic order in which knowledge (unlike previously considered work, raw materials, or capital) is an essential resource (Drucker, 1994, pp. 53–80). In his opinion, the era of the knowledge society is a social order in which the main challenge is knowledge-based social inequality. A similar approach to this concept is presented by P. M. Romer (1994, pp. 3–22), who believes that not only material factors (hardware), as it has been thought until now, but also knowledge is increasingly more vital in the contemporary economy. According to Schwartz et al. (1999, p. 80), knowledge is more than just another critical production factor. From the economic perspective, it performs two roles: it is a source of renewal and an element that links and coordinates other production factors.

According to the division adopted in the world nowadays, knowledge is divided into the following categories (Howitt, 1996, pp. 9–29):

• codified knowledge (software) – for example, books, technological designs, and studies saved on electronic media (this is relatively easy to measure);
• uncodified knowledge (tacit knowledge, wetware) – i.e., the unspoken knowledge that exists in minds and expresses human beliefs, skills, and abilities (this is difficult to measure).

On the other hand, B. Lundvall and B. Johnson (1994, pp. 23–42) introduced the division of knowledge into the following categories:

• know-what – this type of knowledge refers to the knowledge of facts and is rather identified with information;
• know-why – this refers to the understanding of the rules functioning in nature, society, and so on;
• know-how – knowledge related to the ability to do something; this is the knowledge that experts have and which is accumulated in the form of the experience they have as well as the experience developed by companies. Public access to this type of knowledge is very limited, and its transfer is difficult;
• know-who – these are combinations of information and social relationships about who knows what; they allow us to use expert knowledge.

Knowledge is a crucial and well-recognized factor for advancing economic and social development. The differences in the wealth or levels of economic development of countries can be ascribed not only to minimal capital but also to minimal knowledge. The results of empirical studies by OECD reveal that the overall economic performance of OECD countries is based on their stock of knowledge and their learning capabilities. Developing countries have less knowledge about technology than industrialized countries do; knowledge gaps are thus created. Even within countries, knowledge gaps in acquiring, absorbing, and communicating knowledge exist among regions (Park, 2019, p. 7).

Developing new knowledge and using the resources of knowledge and skills that are currently available to create new or improved products and processes are identified as one of the basic determinants supporting the creation of a KBE. Activities in the sphere of research and development play a key role in the creation and use of this knowledge. The conducted analysis and evaluation of the R&D activity in a given country can and should support the process of scientific policy and innovation policy shaping as well as planning the objectives and instruments of public intervention in this area.

The purpose of the study is to determine the level of advancement of Poland in reaching the level of a KBE through the prism of conducted research and development activity. The studied entities represent the two main KBE players, i.e., the sector of business enterprises and the higher education sector. The conducted analysis is initially focused on the so-called indicator of research and development intensity, which is defined as the ratio of the internal expenditure on R&D to the gross domestic product of a given country. In addition, the chapter presents an analysis of these sectors from the point of view of their expenditures on R&D in various cross sections.

The study uses a wide spectrum of information from the publications and statistical databases of the Central Statistical Office. The main research methods used in this chapter include a literature review and an analysis of a secondary research type.

2. Knowledge-Based Economy – Conceptualization of Issue

The origin of a KBE is often identified with J. Schumpeter’s concept of five waves of development (1995, p. 102). According to this, subsequent stages of development occurred together with the emergence of an epoch-making invention that determined the changes in almost all spheres of life. The first wave that started in 1785 was associated with the emergence and diffusion of the steam engine. The second wave, which began in 1845, is identified with the development of rail transport. The third wave, which started in 1900, was associated with the invention of the light bulb and internal combustion engine. The fourth wave, which started in 1950, was dominated by the development of such areas as electronics and aviation. Finally, the fifth wave (which began in the 1990s and has continued until now) is dominated by the increasing use of the Internet and new technologies.

On the basis of a literature review, it is difficult to indicate one common and universal definition of a KBE. While reviewing the definitions of a KBE, it must be stated that it is not possible to present them all; therefore, only some of them will be discussed. According to the classic OECD definition (1996, p. 9; 1999, p. 5), a KBE relies on the production, diffusion, and use of knowledge and information. On the other hand, it is defined by the World Bank report (Dahlman and Anderson, 2000, pp. 13–14) as one in which knowledge is created, acquired, and used by enterprises, organizations, individuals, and communities more effectively while supporting rapid economic and social development. A KBE is not strictly focused on high-tech industries nor tele-information technologies but rather represents a framework for analyzing the range of policy options in education, the information infrastructure, and innovation systems that can support its development. This means that a KBE includes the following (in particular):

• an economic and institutional regime that provides incentives for the efficient use of existing knowledge for the creation of new knowledge, dismantling obsolete activities, and starting up more-efficient new ones;
• an educated and entrepreneurial population that can both create and use new knowledge;
• a dynamic information infrastructure that can facilitate the effective communication, dissemination, and processing of information;
• an efficient innovation system composed of firms, science and research centers, universities, think tanks, consultants, and other organizations that can interact and tap into the growing stock of global knowledge, assimilate and adapt it to local needs, and use it to create new knowledge and technology.

The APEC Economic Committee (2000, pp. vi–vii) considers that a KBE is an economy in which the production, distribution, and use of knowledge are the main drivers of growth, wealth creation, and employment across all industries. In this context, being a KBE means more than simply having a thriving “new economy” or “information economy” that is somehow separate from a stagnant “old economy.” In a truly KBE, all sectors must become knowledge-intensive, not just those that are usually identified as “high technology.”

A joint publication by OECD and EUROSTAT (i.e., the Oslo Manual [2005, pp. 30–34]) also emphasizes that a KBE should not be limited only to the development of the sector of advanced technologies. In the context of a KBE, it is indicated that there are trends in the most economically developed countries that consist of the growing significance of knowledge, information, and advanced skills, as well as the growing need for easy access to these in the sector of enterprises and in the public sector. The complexity of knowledge and technology is growing, and this increases the significance of relationships between enterprises and other entities as a way to acquire specialist knowledge.

A.K. Koźmiński (2001, p. 87) and A. Bylicki’s approach (2003, p. 123) seems to be important in this context. They state that a KBE is an economy in which there are many operating enterprises that build their competitive advantages on the basis of knowledge. Furthermore, there must be such mechanisms functioning in the economy that leads to the use of knowledge to increase the firms’ competitiveness. These mechanisms are based on the transfer of knowledge and innovation; they shape the infrastructure in which the scientific and developmental policy of the state performs a major role.

The concept of a KBE is subject to continuous modifications. One of these is promoted by A. Kukliński (2011, p. 68), who proposes the “creative destruction of KBE” and its replacement with a wisdom-based economy. The author indicates three major components of such an economy, i.e., the imagination as a carrier of the processes of the development of visionary strategic thinking, perceiving experience as a source of wisdom, and introducing the canon of ethics – “good and evil” – into the mainstream of economy-shaping in the 21st century.

3. Characteristics and Pillars of Knowledge-Based Economy

If we want to speak about a KBE, several “initial conditions” must be observed in a given economy. First of all, the following should be mentioned (Kleer, 2009, pp. 72–73):

• a high level of education in a society, i.e., secondary education should be common, and at least half of the working population should have a university degree;
• a high level of economic development, i.e., at least USD 20,000 of income per capita, with 70% of a country’s GDP coming from the creation of services;
• a high degree of economy innovation, which is reflected in the high potential in the sphere of R&D. This represents the share of expenditures on the R&D sector in an amount of at least 3% of the GDP;
• innovation understood as the function of three variables: demand for innovation, the people’s creativity, and an appropriate pro-innovative climate (created by the state);
• the economy and society are open;
• a KBE creates a new economic and social structure and enforces significant modifications in the functions of the public sector.

The literature on the subject shows various approaches to what constitutes the foundations of a KBE. K. Piech (2009, p. 217) identifies four KBE pillars, which include human capital, a system of innovations, ICT, and the institutional and legal environment. The first pillar is formed of those employees with high professional qualifications based on good educations who are familiar with IT technology, know foreign languages, are mobile, and have the motivation to act creatively and effectively for supporting a modern economy. Cooperation between business and science is extremely vital in the system of innovation. ICT, in turn, support the transfer of knowledge. On the other hand, the institutional and legal environment provides favorable conditions for innovation, the creation of a knowledge society, and the development of the other pillars. According to C. Olszak and E. Ziemba (2011, pp. 204–212), the basic pillars of a KBE include innovations (the diffusion of new knowledge, effective ...