Journal of the Knowledge Economy最新文献

Education is crucial for economic growth as well as the emergence and spread of new products. Thus, a deeper understanding of educational growth is needed, which can be achieved by increasing school enrollment at various educational levels—primary, secondary, and tertiary. Despite extensive debates on the impact of education, the determination of an optimal school enrollment level remains crucial for enhancing economic growth. This study examines school enrollment ratios and their optimality toward economic growth in Middle Eastern countries (MEC) in the twenty-first century using the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model, utilizing data from 2000 to 2020. The results revealed that primary and secondary school enrollments have a positive impact on economic growth, with growth rates of 2.702% and 3.351% in gross enrollment ratios, respectively. However, tertiary school enrollment does not seem to contribute significantly to the growth rate. Furthermore, a school enrollment level that can be adjudged as capable of improving the economic growth is determined to be 4% for primary and secondary schools, whereas there is no discernible threshold for tertiary school enrollment. Moreover, primary and secondary school enrollments are at an optimal level for economic growth, while tertiary school enrollment is below optimal.

Sweethearting behavior of front-line service employees (FLSEs) is critical for service industries. Given the widespread use of part-time labor in the service industry and the behavioral differences between part-time and full-time employees, it is crucial to understand the variations in sweethearting between these groups to implement more effective management strategies. This paper aims to explore the differences between full-time and part-time FLSEs’ sweethearting intentions (SI) by integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) with the perspective of social relationship quality (SRQ). With a valid sample of 239 FLSEs, we tested the hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that the TPB well explains SI. Interestingly, SRQ with supervisors will weaken the link between attitude and SI, especially for full-time FLSEs. However, attitude and perceived behavioral control are critical drivers of SI among part-time FLSEs. Based on these findings, the paper recommends that managers acknowledge the unique behaviors of full-time and part-time employees. Specifically, they should understand the combined impact of SRQ and employment type on employee behavior and customize their HRM policies and management strategies to address and mitigate service sweethearting effectively.

Mobile money is an innovative solution to facilitate access to financial services for financially excluded people. This paper assesses the impact of mobile money adoption on households’ vulnerability to economic shocks in Benin. First, using a sequential logit model, the results show that age is the main determinant of the five (5) processes of mobile money adoption. Second, employing a linear probability model with an instrumental variable (LPM-IV) and an extended probit regression model, the results reveal that the use of mobile money increases households’ ability to respond to economic shocks such as death or income loss, illness, harvest failure, and loss of livestock. Third, the use of mobile money favors poor people compared to non-poor. However, women and non-educated benefited less compared to men and educated. Overall, these findings have important policy implications for building household resilience to unforeseen events.

The speed of adaption and integration of ICTs has particular implications for the distributional aspect of the economy. We investigate the dynamic impact of ICT diffusion on income inequality in post-Soviet countries. By applying a cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) approach, we analyze panel data due to cross-sectional dependency and mixed order of integration of our variables. Our empirical investigation reveals a statistically significant long-term relationship between the diffusion of ICTs and income inequality, characterizing it with a discernible negative trajectory. However, our analysis simultaneously reveals an insignificant impact of ICT diffusion on income inequality in the short term, indicating that individuals and businesses require time to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to utilize ICTs effectively. Furthermore, the study delineates the counterproductive income inequality in the former Soviet countries’ nature of governmental austerity measures vis-à-vis long-term income equality objectives, due to proportional or regressive taxation policies. Policy implications enclose the significance of designing policies that foster digital inclusion to reduce income inequality in post-Soviet countries.

Countries around the globe are devolving fiscal, administrative, and political powers to sub-national governments. Generally, the federal transfer system places constraints on local government’s ability to plan and to administer the efficient provision of basic public services. The Devolution Plan in Pakistan was formed on August 14, 2000, which strongly recommended the transfer of power and authority to the lower tiers with the objective of better provision of public services. In addition, the Local Government Ordinance transferred the political, administrative, and fiscal powers to the district and tehsil level in Pakistan. Following 2008, with the shift in the political hierarchy, the higher tiers regained their authority. This study aims to examine the impact of fiscal decentralization in the improvement of public services in 34 developed and developing districts of the Punjab Province, Pakistan, during a 13-year period, from 2003 to 2015. The first differenced GMM and system GMM techniques are applied for the estimation of study data. The comparative analysis of this study finds that fiscal decentralization improves education in developed districts while in developing districts, there is no evidence of improvement. In addition, there is evidence of improvement in health outcomes, in the case of both developed and developing districts of Punjab. Decentralized reforms presented under Local Govt. Ordinance 2001 was only effective during the Pervez Musharraf regime, but after the end of this regime, in 2008 this policy became ineffective, because of recentralization. The transfer of power and authority is suggested to the local governments with a special focus on developing districts of Punjab, Pakistan.

This study examines the independent and joint effects of digital transformation and intellectual capital on firm performance in the Vietnamese context. We utilize data from the annual reports of 118 publicly listed Vietnamese firms from 2011 to 2021. Intellectual capital is measured using the modified value-added intellectual coefficient (MVAIC) model, and the generalized method of moments is employed. In addition, we use the threshold regression estimator to examine these effects at varying levels of intellectual capital. Our results indicate that intellectual capital enhances firm performance, whereas digital transformation negatively affects firm performance in Vietnam. However, when digital transformation is implemented together with investing in intellectual capital, their joint effect positively contributes to firm performance. We also find that the positive impact of digital transformation on firm performance is more pronounced when intellectual capital is high. These findings offer valuable insights for executives and policymakers on effectively leveraging intellectual capital and managing digital transformation to support firm performance in Vietnam.

In the knowledge innovation ecosystem, how to realize the layout of knowledge subjects, knowledge generation of knowledge subjects, and knowledge integration are the emphases of knowledge innovation management. This paper conducts a longitudinal case study on the formation process of Huawei’s innovation ecosystem and explores the formation process, basic structure, and mechanism of enterprise independent knowledge system from the perspective of knowledge innovation ecosystem. Through case analysis, the relationship between each knowledge innovation subject is associated with a tree structure, the internal structure of knowledge innovation meta-knowledge innovation is opened, the function mechanism of knowledge innovation meta-knowledge is analyzed, and the knowledge integration between different innovation subjects is finally realized. Through the cultivation of systematic enterprise knowledge tree, the heterogeneous innovation subjects are incorporated into the unified knowledge innovation system framework, the co-creation of value is realized, and the evolution paradigm and governance mechanism of mutually beneficial knowledge innovation ecosystem are formed.

The customer-focused total quality management (TQM) approach means providing better performance and higher-quality products and services for the production ecosystem where the customer is at the center. This study aims to identify TQM barriers and reveal a cause-and-effect relationship between these barriers for effective implementation in production. The barriers are explored through opinions from academics and industry experts and then analyzed using the DEMATEL method. Because of expert opinions and literature compilation, TQM barriers that have the potential to create obstacles in production are grouped into six categories. The analysis has shown that in order to eliminate all barriers, the lack of TQM implementation must first be eliminated. Lack of organizational culture emerges as the second most important barrier. The study results present a holistic solution approach by revealing the relationship between barriers. DEMATEL offers effective solutions requiring much less participation than structural analysis models. The method is quite easy to calculate and does not require intense effort. The study serves as a theoretical and practical observation tool for managers in terms of understanding the reasons for unsuccessful TQM practices in production. Additionally, our model, which reveals the cause-effect relationship between production and TQM barriers, is complementary to previous models that only detected significant relationships between barriers.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of government policy and analyze the B2C market with a focus on consumer behavior trends in e-commerce within the context of macroeconomic factors. To achieve this goal, descriptive statistics of economic development over the past 5 years were analyzed. The analysis determines the indicators of society’s level of digitalization and readiness to use online technologies to make purchases. These indicators, in turn, impact the economy as a whole. The macro-level factor rating method was also applied to analyze the effectiveness of public policy aimed at digitalization and innovation. The final part of the study is an analysis of the B2C market dynamics; the analysis includes the trend approximation method and a forecast for the near future. The presented approach substantiates consumer trends in the European B2C market, including the Eastern European one, and evaluates how public policy reflects the new economic reality. Quantitative achievements of the study for the period 2018–2023 reveal the following: Internet access among the population in Eastern European countries increased by 11.9%, with a corresponding 18.0% rise in B2C e-commerce volume; the ecological efficiency level in Eastern European countries reached 53.8%, while the Comprehensive Urban–Rural Index (CUR) achievement index stood at 49.4%. These findings underscore the impact of government policies in enhancing digital service accessibility and promoting e-commerce, as well as highlight the current state of the ecological situation in the region, emphasizing the need for further efforts to improve environmental conditions.

The extent to which public debt has been driven by defence expenditure continues to be intensely debated in the academic and policy spheres. Most literature on the public debt-defence expenditure nexus has used aggregate public debt and assumed a linear relationship. This paper investigates this relationship by disaggregating public debt into external and domestic debt and considers both linear and nonlinear relationships in Fiji for the period 1992–2021. We apply the linear and nonlinear bounds testing procedures within the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model. The empirical findings reveal a significant long-run nonlinear cointegration association between military expenditure and public debt. While a rise in military expenditure can increase both external debt and domestic debt, a decline in military expenditure has a greater influence on public debt. Moreover, the asymmetric outcome of military expenditure is more pronounced on the country’s domestic debt compared to external debt. From a policy perspective, strategic reforms in spending can be useful in fiscal management even though military expenditure partially adds to public debt and is not the only factor. Further, the used asymmetric analysis can be valuable in bringing objectivity to other public expenditure programmes.