Knowledge Governance: Meaning, Nature, Origins, and Implications

HANDBOOK OF ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION, Anna Grandori, ed., Edward Elgar, 2012

33 Pages Posted: 7 Dec 2011

See all articles by Nicolai J. Foss

Nicolai J. Foss

Copenhagen Business School - Department of Strategy and Innovation

Date Written: December 1, 2011

Abstract

Assumptions about the knowledge held by economic agents have been an integral part of the theory of economic organization since its inception. However, recent work — here called “knowledge governance” — has more explicitly highlighted knowledge as both an independent and dependent variable. Thus, a spate of work in management research and new institutional economics has highlighted dimensions such as complementarity, complexity, tacitness, and so on of knowledge assets and shown how knowledge assets, thus dimensionalized, has explanatory value with respect to economic organization. However, knowledge may also be seen as being caused by governance mechanisms and structures; specifically, incentives, allocations of decision rights, organizational structure and so on influence the search for knowledge, and the creation, sharing and integration of knowledge. More philosophically, the concern with the role of knowledge in the context of economic organization prompts a reevaluation of a number of the fundamental assumptions that are often used to guide theory-building in the economics of organization (e.g., Bayesian and game theoretical foundations).

Keywords: Governance, knowledge management, organizational economics

JEL Classification: L1, L2, M1

Suggested Citation

Foss, Nicolai J., Knowledge Governance: Meaning, Nature, Origins, and Implications (December 1, 2011). HANDBOOK OF ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION, Anna Grandori, ed., Edward Elgar, 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1969400 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1969400

Nicolai J. Foss (Contact Author)

Copenhagen Business School - Department of Strategy and Innovation ( email )

Kilen
Frederiksberg, 2000
Denmark

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