Knowledge and Productivity in the World's Largest Manufacturing Corporations

Lionel Nesta

No 119, SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: I examine the relationship between the characteristics of firm knowledge in terms of capital, diversity and relatedness, and productivity. Panel data regression models suggest that unlike knowledge diversity, knowledge capital and knowledge relatedness explain a substantial share of the variance of firm productivity. Activities based on a set of related technological knowledge are more productive than those based on unrelated knowledge because the cost of co-ordinating productive activities decreases as the knowledge used in these activities becomes integrated efficiently. The contribution of knowledge relatedness to productivity is significantly higher in high-technology sectors than in other sectors.

Keywords: knowledge; productivity; large corporations; knowledge measurement; panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2004-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eff, nep-ino and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Knowledge and productivity in the world's largest manufacturing corporations (2008)
Working Paper: Knowledge and productivity in the world’s largest manufacturing corporations (2008)
Working Paper: Knowledge and productivity in the world’s largest manufacturing corporations (2008)
Working Paper: Knowledge and Productivity in the World's Largest Manufacturing Corporations (2005)
Working Paper: Knowledge and Productivity in the World's Largest Manufacturing Corporations (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sru:ssewps:119

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