Caroline Wong

Singapore in transition: from technology to culture hub

Purpose – This paper aims to present an approach to the knowledge‐based economy that focuses on the developmental synergies between technology (especially information and communication technologies), culture and place (hub) as expressed in the innovative milieu of the inner city.Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on research in city and urban planning, which emphasizes the importance of quality of a place, location or city and the more intentional emphasis given to development of human and cultural resources, which are conducive to innovation, learning, creativity and change in a knowledge‐based economy.Findings – Singapore is chosen as a case study of analysis for a knowledge‐based economy in transition because of its developmental approach and strategic shift from one focused on technology‐intensive sectors to one focused on high knowledge‐intensive companies and towards a free‐spirited dynamic creative hub in the making. It displays many characteristics typical of a knowledge‐based economy ...

Local connections, global perspectives

Higher education is increasingly focusing on facilitating agentic, outward-looking, globally minded graduates. International mobility experiences are positioned as key to developing these qualities; however, not all students have the inclination, resources, or support to enable them to participate in such experiences. Student surveys reveal that the top barriers to participation—time, finances, work, and family commitments—are outside the influence of educators. In response, educators need to look to opportunities afforded through both local and international experiences. Service learning can enable students to explore democratic action in a local space within a framework that accounts for global perspectives. This chapter draws on findings of six local and international case studies to explore curriculum and pedagogical frameworks that facilitate global perspectives through community-based learning experiences.

Knowledge and Cities

Urban areas such as major cities are crucial in the development and utilization of knowledge as a resource. Many talented knowledge workers in the consulting, investment-banking, law and science and technology industries are attracted to certain global cities, not only because of the attractive work environment but also their attractive social amenities. Observations such as migration of capital and attractiveness of cities for multinational corporations (MNCs) have highlighted the importance of location in knowledge management research.

Knowledge and Households

This chapter seeks to draw a parallel between organizations and households in the areas of knowledge and value creation. We introduce comparisons between firms and households because factors such as the nature of competition, collaboration, community and sharing within households provide examples of effective knowledge and value creation and exchange carried out within an ‘organization’-structured social unit. Our objective is to underpin the view that understanding of organizations can be improved by drawing out the analogy with households, where knowledge and value are created informally and holistically. Not just production can create value in the organization: value creation is also evident in the consumption decisions as they are made in households.

Knowledge and Competition

This chapter combines looking at complexity with a consideration of value creation in knowledge-based industries. Our main conjecture is that indices (Jervis, 1985), or external truthful signals, can be used by the market to certify and rank the value of an actor’s product or services. Such path-dependent effects can lead to winner-take-all (Frank and Cook, 1995) results, where ranked actors gain a disproportionately large part of the market or value relative to unranked actors. This framework helps to illustrate the complexities of competition when our analysis integrates both markets and institutions.

Knowledge and the State

The State has been seen as crucial for the phenomenal economic success of capitalism in Asian countries such as Korea and Taiwan (Amsden, 1989; 2001; Wade, 1990). Entrepreneurship on the other hand has been seen to flourish in countries in which free markets operate, and where the state’s role has been minor, such as in Hong Kong (Redding, 1990).

Knowledge and Exchange

Our interest in devoting a chapter to knowledge exchange and the ethical issues that come to the fore stems from the fact that a growing body of literature in business ethics considers the concept of exchange as central in understanding business ethics.

Knowledge and Measurement

An organization’s ability to create and exchange knowledge within a network of social and technological relationships has become crucial in today’s international business world. The ability to measure and value such knowledge assets has become important because of the role they have as fundamental drivers of global success. This is especially true in the service industries, which are increasingly knowledge-based (Coe, 2003b; Herbert et al, 2003).

Knowledge and Entanglements

Already in 1945 Hayek pointed out that it was difficult and complex to analyse knowledge as a resource due to its intangibility and randomness: the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form, but solely as the dispersed hits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge…a problem of the utilisation of knowledge not given to anyone in its totality. Hayek, 1945, p. 520