Knowledge assets play an important role in the performance of developed (“knowledge-based”) economies and it is important to be able to acquire and develop valuable assets and to utilize them efficiently and effectively.
Novi is eager to participate in societal-level discussions about the future of knowledge economies. Knowledge-based foundations of modern societies serve as increasingly important building blocks of societal prosperity. The research stream of national intellectual capital focuses on understanding and measuring knowledge assets at national level. It has already produced measurement tools to be used for studying the status of a nations’ knowledge assets in comparison to others. These tools also provide basis for studying the effects of these assets on the performance of national economy and on the performance of national welfare or prosperity.
In our research, systemic approach is enforced from the viewpoints of networks, supply chains and service systems. Success of organizations is increasingly dependent on their capability to co-operate and co-create value not only with their customers but also competitors. The interconnectedness and openness of the business environment have led us to challenge some of the basic foundations of the knowledge-based management theories. Focusing on internal knowledge resources does not provide an adequate view to the success factors of modern organizations. In many cases competitiveness arises from the external knowledge assets and the capability to connect these together.
System perspective does not necessarily require big changes in management tools, but it certainly requires an adoption a different kind of mindset. We are interested to participate in this discussion in order to develop relevant understanding and methods to support also political decision-making. On our mission, we find it extremely important to avoid sub-optimization. This requires building of system-level structures and incentives to foster knowledge-based value creation that benefits the whole system or society. For Novi, some of the driving research questions are:
- What information and knowledge assets drive system-level performance?
- Who owns them?
- How to integrate systemic information and knowledge assets into a value-creating whole?
- Who is actually creating and defining value in a system?