Ivan Trofimov
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Name: Ivan Trofimov Course: PhD;ECON Department: Department of Economics Supervisors:
Email Address: itrofimo@efs.mq.edu.au |
Thesis Title
Institutional foundation for non orthodox economic coordination; social capital and knowledge perspectives
Abstract
The current research is to contribute to a rising non-orthodox economic paradigm, emphasizing the role of knowledge and learning, the build-up of social productive forces and consequent adjustment of social productive relations. This contrasts with neoclassical and neoliberal paradigms stressing the efficiency of exchange, dominance of laissez faire institutions and, when it comes to knowledge accumulation, innovation in the narrow and sterile sense.
The basic premise of the research is that accumulation of knowledge is a social, dynamic and value-driven process, the result of deliberate social effort. Clearly, it is particularly fruitful to apply the above paradigm to the circumstances of developing economies. Thus the area of concentration is the late industrializing economies, where innovation and learning effort are substantially structured and formalized. Four major functional areas of NIS are identified:
1) The development of innovative competencies. Here the insights from evolutionary economics, the theory of the firm and strategic management are helpful.
2) The management and intervention into the knowledge accumulation process. The appropriate coordination mechanisms are discussed.
3) Development of the human resource base as a prerequisite for innovation. Lessons from labour and social economics are important here.
4) Linking innovation activities with the rest of the social fabric. Ideas from network theory, institutional analysis of various strands, social capital theory and techno-economic paradigms are extensively used.