Science Communication as a Pathway to Knowledge Transfer in the Knowledge-Based Economy

The article explains the concept of a knowledge-based economy and the role of local government in the process of its construction. It is assumed that the reorientation of an economy takes place in stages and the regions are moving on the path of development from material-intense and labor-intensive growth, through capital-intensive to high-tech knowledge-based growth. A knowledge-based economy is defined as an economy based on the creation, transfer and implementation of knowledge. Support for the new economy, in which knowledge plays a key role, becomes a huge challenge for the government, whose goal is to achieve a high level of development and competitiveness. The article includes a selection of local government units. The purpose of this article is to explain of the concepts of local government and the knowledge-based economy and to identify the activities of local government units in building the knowledge-based economy. The examples of local governments will be analyzed to encourage the creation and spread of knowledge.

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a comprehensive academic literature review on the relationship between knowledge management, knowledge transfer and organizational performance in a specific subset of the creative industry, i.e. arts and crafts organizations. Furthermore, this paper analyzes how knowledge management and transfer within arts and crafts organizations help increase performance and enhance the value of the activity of the so-called “knowledge workers” (i.e. craftsmen), who are the real knowledge owners in the process of value creation.Design/methodology/approachThe literature review follows the model suggested by Vom Brocke et al. (2009). The review follows a five-phase approach so as to be systematic, transparent and replicable. Academic contributions published over two periods are taken into consideration. The first period covers the years 1990-2000, when the concepts of creative industry and knowledge-based economy were developed. The second period covers the years 2000-2016, when scholars started to investigate how to effectively transfer knowledge (very often in the form of “tacit knowledge”) retained by master craftsmen in arts and crafts organizations and the critical role played by craftsmen in the performance of such organizations.FindingsThree main issues have emerged: how arts and crafts organizations manage and transfer knowledge internally; the effects of these activities on organizational performance; and the prominent role of craftsmen. The literature review shows how in arts and crafts organizations there is a considerable link between the concepts of “performance" and "tacit knowledge", even though addressing such link is somehow hard to realize, for several reasons discussed in the paper. The measurement of performance in arts and crafts organizations has become an area of academic investigation only when both the role of knowledge management and transfer and the role of knowledge workers (i.e., craftsmen) have become evident for obtaining a competitive advantage.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper has been an attempt to organize existing studies on knowledge management and transfer and to investigate the relationship existing between knowledge and performance in arts and crafts organizations. Nevertheless, the relationship between knowledge and performance is yet to be explored, as well as the development of techniques for measuring arts and crafts organizations’ performance effectively. The present contribution calls for a systematic reflection on how the transfer of traditional craftsmen’s skills impacts organizational performances in the long run. The definition and implementation of new performance evaluations criteria tailored to enhance the tacit knowledge of craftsmen as a real source of differentiation and competitive advantage for the arts and crafts organizations is somehow still missing.Practical implicationsBy pursuing its objectives, the present contribution aims to represent a step toward enabling arts and crafts organizations to play a vital role in the modern society in a more structured way. This would help to build awareness of the potential of arts and crafts organizations for promoting economic growth, proposing a value proposition different from the one dictated by the globalization and by the triumph of product standardization and mass production.Originality/valueAnalyzing the knowledge management and transfer within arts and crafts organizations with a historical perspective, it appears that the recognition in academic literature of the centrality of knowledge management and transfer within arts and crafts organizations is only recent (i.e. from 2011 onward). Indeed, for approximately 20 years (i.e. 1990-2010), knowledge has been constantly related to technological paradigms and standardized results, with very little research and debate on craftsmanship and the role of craftsmen. Nevertheless, the research shows that over the years, the focus on knowledge in arts and crafts organizations and knowledge transfer has become progressively more detailed and precise: some authors have studied the role of craftsmen in the knowledge economy according to a historical perspective, while some others have analyzed different types of knowledge more thoroughly. For example, Sveiby (1997, 1996), analyzing the concept of "knowing talent" and "tradition", outlines a more prominent role of craftsmen in the knowledge economy and explain how, in sectors with a strong traditional background, the transfer of tacit knowledge is a meaningful challenge for many organizations.

The OECD (1997) conceives a national innovation system (NIS) as “technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions are key to the innovative process” (p. 7). Innovation is conceived as the result of complex set of relationships among actors in the system, which includes companies, universities and research centres. In actual knowledge-based economies, industry-links are essential for economic development and progress (Ahrweiler et al., 2011). They are essential for building up networks of relationships that are necessary for any firm to innovate (Freeman 1987, 1992). In particular, many influential studies have identified the links between firm innovation and competitive advantage at the national level (Porter, 1990). Lundvall (1992) describes characteristics of NIS, emphasizing the importance or learning and how small countries, with limited public budgets and few large corporations, have selected areas of innovation strength and are able to absorb knowledge and innovations from elsewhere (Cooke et al., 1997). Thus, the vision of a NSI is just beyond the technological advances, “but is more broadly on the factors influencing national technological capabilities” (Nelson & Rosenberg, 1993: 4).

The knowledge transfer from science into the business and service sector is now the pointof interest for institutions of science and business units, especially in the context of building a knowledge-based economy. In Poland there is a lot of research prepared by government institutions such asMinistry of Economy and PARP (Polish Agency of Enterprise Development), and by UE. There is notso much research of micro-enterprises in the SMEs sector. The specificity of management of micro-enterpriseshas a big influence on the knowledge transfer process and recognizing the stimulating factorcontributes to the growth of significance of transfer process in micro-enterprises. The aim of the presentarticle is the presentation of logistics and marketing conditions of knowledge transfer process, especiallyin steel-construction branch. There are presented the author’s own research of knowledge transfer inproduction and service providing enterprises in the steel-construction branch.

Even though the higher education model of universities in Romania corresponds to a Humboldtian model based on harmonizing teaching and research activities, in recent years, under pressure from the knowledge-based economy, research activity has tended towards an increased role. Therefore, the role of universities across Romania is beginning to shift towards an entrepreneurial one. This paper seeks to identify the strategies that universities are currently developing to sustain the process of knowledge transfer. To achieve the above aim, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 university managers from research-intensive universities. The data was analysed using a coding system that was developed based on the theoretical framework. The results indicate a tendency among Romanian universities towards a linear model of tackling knowledge transfer, meaning that the primary focus is on establishing networks and partnerships between researchers and other categories of end users and on developing cross-domain research teams among researchers from the same university.

W gospodarce opartej na wiedzy obserwujemy bardzo silne przenikanie się gospodarki oraz nauki, a do miana podstawowego czynnika wytwórczego urasta technologia. Transfer wiedzy oraz związanej z nią technologii nie przebiega jednokierunkowo. Coraz częściej ośrodki akademickie przekonują się, że budowanie relacji ze światem biznesu jest dla nich koniecznością. W artykule podjęto się próby scharakteryzowania spółki celowej z położeniem szczególnego nacisku na jej rolę w procesie komercjalizacji wyników badań naukowych. Jej ostatnim etapem jest tworzenie przedsiębiorstwa typu spin-off, szczególnie w obszarze nowych technologii. Zaprezentowane zostały etapy powstawania tych przedsięwzięć, a także możliwe modele ich funkcjonowania. W artykule położono również nacisk na charakterystykę ich relacji z uniwersytetami lub instytucjami badawczymi. Ostatnia część rozważań zostały poświęcone instrumentom prezentującym strategie wejścia na rynek z nowymi przedsięwzięciami.

The Role and Influence of Government Economic Policies in the Process of Transferring or Developing the Required Technologies in the Aviation Knowledge - Based Industries and Aeronautics

This paper investigates the effects in short and long run of renewable and non-renewable energy, technological advancement, population, foreign direct investment, energy export, energy price, and carbon dioxide emissions on economic growth in Saudi Arabia as one of the largest oil producing and richest countries in the world and as a leading country in investing in modern technology, during 1990–2022 by using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag(ARDL) approach and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) Granger causality technique. In first step, the ADF and DF-GSL tests are used to identify the order of integration of variables. In the second step, the Bounds test and the Wald test are used respectively to verify the existence of long run cointegration relationships and the long run relationships between variables. In the third step, we have applied the ARDL approach to capture the effect of each variable on Saudi economic growth in long term. Finally, the VECM technique was used to detect the direction of causality running from variable to another. It is appearing that all variables are stationary in first difference, and there are a long run cointegration and relationships among variables. The results of ARDL estimation show that non-renewable energy, renewable energy, population, foreign direct investment, energy export, and energy price positively affect the Saudi economic growth. While technological advancement and carbon dioxide emissions have negative effects on the economic increase of Saudi Arabia. These two results appear important and useful because of their consequences. In effect, it could damage its worldwide standing and dishearten foreign investment, stopping economic diversification efforts and increasing the income inequality. Though, the results of VECM technique show four bidirectional causal relationships between economic growth and non-renewable energy, foreign direct investment, energy export, and energy price. The findings of this study have several policy implications for Saudi Arabia. First, Saudi government should continue investing in the energy sector. Second, to attract more FDI, Saudi government should continue its efforts to reduce bureaucracy, simplify regulations, and provide a business-friendly environment. This strategy can help transfer technology and knowledge. Third, the government should monitor and control energy prices, as these can significantly impact economic growth. The government should invest in technological advancement, as this can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve energy efficiency; also, investing in human capital is essential for long-term economic growth. Policies that promote the health, education, and general well-being of the population can lead to a more productive and innovative workforce. However, the article reveals that technological advancements have a negative impact on economic growth in Saudi Arabia. This could be due to a number of factors, such as a lack of skilled workers to implement new technologies or a mismatch between the skills of the workforce and the needs of the economy. As solutions, Saudi government must invest in education and training can help address these challenges by developing a workforce capable of adapting to the changing needs of the economy and effectively using new technologies. Also, it's important to create science and technology parks to foster innovation and collaboration between businesses and universities. By taking these steps, the Saudi government can help create more diverse and knowledge-based economy, making it less dependent on oil and gas exports and more resilient to economic shocks.

The transfer of knowledge entails a challenge for any research activity. It drives the promise and results towards implemented and replicable facts. The transfer is frequently crystallised in contracts and patents, but not solely: scientific communication, general publication, property rights, or public R&D + innovation projects generated in the heat of research are also transference products and tools. This article lays out the benefits and weaknesses of these devices, underlining the participation of technology, especially online tech, when appropriate. We found that there are a variety of resources for transference, and that technology is only valid in some of them.

Knowledge has become the key asset for the economy to gain competitiveness as more and more countries have shifted or are shifting towards knowledge-based economy, no exception for Malaysia. In order to acquire and transfer technology and/or knowledge from overseas to Malaysia, Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) has been proposed. However, research focuses on cross-border knowledge transfer especially in the context of MSC status corporations in Malaysia is still limited. The factors that affect the effectiveness of cross-border knowledge transfer will be determined and presented in this paper. Quantitative approach has been adopted in this study. The findings of this study show that knowledge characteristics (KC) and network characteristics (NC) have positive significant relationship with cross-border knowledge transfer. The effects context towards KC and NC will also be examined in this study.

Social Impact StatementPlants are rich sources of drugs and other high‐value chemicals that are used by humans. Many of the plant species that produce important molecules grow in remote locations and have extensive histories of indigenous use. Global concerns about sustainable supply have in some cases led to the development of alternative methods for production using biotechnological approaches. Consideration of responsible stewardship and use of the world's plants and associated traditional knowledge for the greater human good are at the heart of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the recently implemented Nagoya Protocol. The development of fora that enable open discussion and exploration of issues relating to these aspects will be critical in endeavors to protect and preserve both the environment and present and future generations.SummaryHere, we investigate the application of cross‐disciplinary approaches to explore societal perceptions of plants and their uses, focusing on high‐value chemicals. The Global Garden project engages the public, researchers, and regulators in day‐long workshops that combine science, poetry, and visual arts practice to foster participants’ skill in imagining and re‐imagining relationships between high‐value plant products, biotechnology, and social and ethical aspects of these. The project represents an intervention into discussions of science communications and public engagement, addressing the uses and benefits of arts‐based approaches to foster imaginative engagement with plant science. The workshop reported here began with real plant case studies and a discussion of the aims of scientists using them. Participants were invited to respond to the issues of relationships among plants, chemicals, and people raised by the case studies through poetry and visual artwork. The poems and artwork that were produced show variation in the participants’ imaginings of plant science. They present distinctive visions of research and innovation and of the associated ethical and social implications. This type of forum, based on creative immersion, opens up opportunities for engaging with and exploring complex relations between plant biotechnology, society, and ethics. This article offers a reflection on the uses, challenges, and implications of arts‐based approaches to research communications and public engagement that disrupts traditional knowledge transfer structures. In doing so, we frame the project within science communication pedagogies and consider public engagement a form of pedagogy.

The purpose of the article is to reasonably determine the prospects for building a knowledge economy in Ukraine and to establish the most promising ways of knowledge development of the national economy. The scientific novelty is contained in the assessment of the prospects for building a knowledge-based economy in Ukraine and determining, through modeling, factors that, if activated at the regional and national levels, will allow this to be more effective and in a short time. The vector of economic development of a modern civilized state is determined. The essence, content and components of the knowledge economy are substantiated. Based on international statistics, indicators have been selected that quantify the components of the knowledge economy. A comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of the values of indicators was carried out from different sides covering each of the three components of the knowledge economy (education, science and information and communication technologies) for Ukraine and Poland for the period 1992-2017. Elected levers of influence in the economy of Ukraine, which will bring the state of the economy of knowledge closer. The influence of indicators characterizing each of the components of the knowledge economy on the gross domestic product of Ukraine per capita in fixed prices was carried out. Further research should be directed to the development of a roadmap and specific programs to intensify the selected levers of the knowledge economy in Ukraine, which should be implemented at the level of the region and the country as a whole.

Klaus-Werner Benz was born in 1938 in Berlin. He grew up in Stuttgart, where he also went to school. He studied at the Technical University of Stuttgart and received his diploma in physics in 1963. After two years of working at the research institute of the Deutsche Bundespost in Darmstadt, he started his PhD work at the Technical University of Stuttgart, which he finished in 1970. In 1972, he became head of the laboratory for semiconductor crystal growth in the physics department of TU Stuttgart. In the crystal growth laboratory Benz combined growing of bulk crystals by using the ‘Travelling Heater Method’ (THM) with epitaxial technologies, such as ‘Liquid Phase Epitaxy’ (LPE) of III-V compound semiconductors. In 1986, he moved from Stuttgart to Paderborn, where he became professor of experimental physics at the University-GH-Paderborn. Two years later Professor Benz was appointed chair of Crystallography and Materials Science at the Crystallographic Institute of the University of Freiburg as successor of Professor Nitsche. In Freiburg he extended his field of research into more areas of crystal growth and material science. He used his interdisciplinary understanding of physics and chemistry and his remarkable collaborative skills to push through founding of the Freiburger Materialforschungszentrum (Freiburg Materials Research Center) FMF during the early stage of material science in Germany. The FMF is an internationally renowned research center offering an excellent platform for interdisciplinary academia and industrial collaborations. Klaus-Werner Benz was one of the founding members of the FMF directorate and still is an active member today. In 1999, Prof. Benz was elected Vice President for Scientific Knowledge Transfer and Communications of the University of Freiburg. He used his experience of interdisciplinary research to establish new structures and strategies in Multimedia Teaching and Research at the university. Looking back at the early years of the FMF, I was lucky to start my scientific carrier under the supervision of Prof. Benz. He taught me the impact of international scientific collaborations. Prof. Benz has initiated several successful projects, some of which are still continuing, such as research on crystal growth under microgravity conditions. He was a pioneer in this field and conducted several crystal growth experiments in the D1 and D2 space missions. These were followed by the Eureca mission and lead to first experimental preparations for the International Space Station ISS. International collaboration has always been the most important part of scientific research for Prof. Benz. He started several East-West collaborations in the 1980's, long before the fall of the iron curtain such as, for example, joint research experiments where Russian satellites in cooperation with the Russian space agency were used. Several colleagues contributed to this volume dedicated to honour the scientific work of Prof. Klaus-Werner Benz in the last decades. I am much obliged for his support in the past, our fruitful discussions and his important advice today and in the years to come. We are truly grateful for his good cooperation in the past and wish him all the best for the future.

Gifted students represent a critical human resource for addressing complex global challenges such as natural hazards, climate change, and sustainable use of Earth’s resources. Due to their advanced cognitive abilities, high curiosity, and problem-solving potential, these students require enriched, interdisciplinary learning environments that connect local phenomena with global systems. School-based projects focusing on natural hazards, human impact, and Earth’s resources play a key role in fostering scientific literacy, environmental responsibility, and systems thinking, particularly when they are grounded in real-world data and contemporary scientific research.Projects addressing earthquakes, sea level change, wheather extreme events, resource depletion, and anthropogenic effects enable students to understand the dynamic interactions between natural processes and human activities. When such projects extend from urban and tectonically active regions like Istanbul to polar regions such as the Arctic, students gain a holistic perspective of Earth as an interconnected system. The Arctic, warming three to four times faster than the global average, functions as a natural laboratory where the consequences of anthropogenic climate change—melting sea ice, permafrost thaw, and sea-level rise—are observed most rapidly. Linking local risk contexts with polar case studies strengthens students’ ability to transfer knowledge across scales and enhances their awareness of global responsibility.This study presents an educational framework and project examples developed for gifted middle school students, integrating anthropogenic and natural hazards through inquiry-based, project-based, and experiential learning approaches. The framework is informed by the author’s 15 years of interdisciplinary teaching experience in physics, chemistry, biology, earth sciences, aviation modeling, and polar sciences, as well as by extensive national and international fieldwork. As one of the very few Turkish teachers to have conducted scientific work in the Arctic during winter, the author has translated firsthand polar observations into classroom practices, digital educational materials, and project-based learning modules. Experience gained through TÜBİTAK 4004 Nature Schools, eTwinning, Erasmus+, Antarctic Ambassadorship, and the Svalbard Research Project forms the methodological foundation of the presented projects.Within this framework, students actively engage in scientific inquiry, data interpretation, and communication through science fairs, project competitions, and conference-style presentations. A recent student-led project on polar hazards examined the global impacts of climate-change-induced natural disasters in polar regions and reached the final stage of a national competition. Such experiences demonstrate how polar-focused projects increase student motivation, deepen conceptual understanding, and support the development of scientific process skills.The findings highlight that integrating polar science and hazard education into gifted education curricula enhances environmental awareness, critical thinking, and global citizenship. It is recommended that teacher field experiences, international collaborations, and digital learning resources be expanded to support sustainable and scalable education models. By transforming up-to-date scientific knowledge into structured curricula, gifted education can cultivate future scientists and informed citizens capable of addressing anthropogenic and natural hazards affecting Earth’s systems.

Knowledge hiding as a coping response to the supervisors’ dark triad of personality: A protection motivation theory perspective