Knowledge Creation and Growth

In the current phase of globalization, the patterns and locations of knowledge production and the international flows of ideas are rapidly changing. For decades, the US, Western Europe, and Japan have dominated the global production of knowledge, but there is a major shift underway: Recent years have seen an increasing globalization of R&D and a shifting of knowledge-intensive activities from advanced industrialized countries towards emerging economies. As knowledge is key to growth, competitiveness and employment, global shifts in knowledge production and international knowledge flows induce a global shifting of wealth. 

The Research Area’s mission is to contribute to a better understanding of the processes at work by analyzing the determinants of knowledge creation, diffusion and knowledge-based growth in industrialized and emerging economies. A distinguishing feature of the Area’s research is its focus on the role of context (geographical, institutional and cultural), since in a globalized world the crucial determinants of competitiveness, innovation and growth are not ubiquitously available but stick—at least temporarily—to specific locations.

Research is organised in two closely related projects: 

Firm-level Evidence of Knowledge-spillovers in Industrialized Countries
	This project analyzes how the flow of newly created knowledge affects firm performance in countries close to the world technology frontier. Particular attention is given to the role of the institutional, geographical and cultural context and to the interrelation between firms’ international activities and their ability to innovate.
Knowledge Creation and Growth in Emerging Economies
	This project investigates patterns of innovation and growth in emerging economies, the consequences of global knowledge sourcing for emerging economies and the driving forces behind knowledge flows from industrialized countries to emerging economies. Part of the project is supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Research Network

The Kiel Institute’s research area Knowledge Creation and Growth is member of the following international networks:

• The Network of Excellence “DIME” (Dynamics of Institutions and Markets in Europe) funded by the EU: the “DIME” network of economist and social scientists in Europe seeks to integrate economic analysis and social sciences, geography, as well as economic geography to address the economic and social consequences of increasing globalization in the knowledge-based economy.
• The Research Network “Megacities – Megachallenge” funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft): this network consists of economists and social scientists in Germany, China and Bangladesh who work together on the DFG priority project “Megacities-Megachallenge: Informal Dynamics of Global Change”, focusing on investigating the process of global changes, in particular the process of knowledge creation and diffusion, and their interactions with mega-urbanisation and informal phenomena.

More information can be found in the official websites of these two networks. Corresponding links can be found in the frame “Networks”.