Ahmed Bounfour

University of Paris-Saclay · European Chair on Intangibles & RITM

In this article, we highlight important differences in capital investment and capital stock in intangible assets between France and Germany, which we attribute to potential measurement issues between the two countries. Using data from the latest EUKLEMS/INTANProd release for the period between 1995 and 2020, we identify investment in software and d...

Purpose The purpose of the current study is to illustrate the importance of strategic agility (SA), the capacity to respond agilely to a rapidly changing environment, for digitally transforming firms during the COVID-19 crisis. A secondary purpose of the study is to conceptually frame SA as a function of the creative to realized intangible capital...

Investment in intangible assets is recognized as a major source of growth, innovation, and value creation in the modern economy but there is so far no standardized approach to the measurement of intangibles. The chapter lists many data sources that can be useful in (partially) shedding light with the emphasis on past surveys. The first survey to ad...

Most studies on knowledge diffusion and productivity focus on either R&D, foreign direct investment or patent citation flows, and rarely consider complementary, intangible investments such as business process redesign, the co-invention of new products and business models, and investments in human capital. Although the effects of complementary inves...

Purpose The paper aims to address the organizational transformation of firms for value creation resulting from cloud computing (CC). Design/methodology/approach With reference to the theory of organizational fit, we modeled organizational transformation as a function of five aspects of CC practice: functionality, data management, roles and compete...

The paper addresses the organizational transformation of firms for value creation resulting from cloud computing (CC). With reference to the theory of organizational fit, we modelled organizational transformation as an output variable, as a function of five aspects of CC practice: functionality, data management, roles and competences of information...

Due to the central role played by platforms in the development of new technologies such as AI, the study concentrates on patents applicants that collaborate with platforms, considering that collaborations create an essential link for the transmission of knowledge. Using patent data and a panel of 22 platforms and 207 worldwide applicants that share...

Over the past 5 years, platforms have emerged as a key organizational concept, notably due to the ubiquity of digital. This chapter aims to: (1) analyse the key economic challenges related to the platform phenomenon and (2) review the current analytical approaches before (3) proposing an integrated approach to how platforms work in practice. The ch...

This chapter addresses to issue of designing the next generation of comptences in relationship to AI development. Taking a foresight perspective, the chapter distinguished three level for such a design: (1) The macro level: this relates to policies to be developed at governmental or inter-governmental level. Problems include those related to employ...

The assessment and adoption of disruptive technologies is a complicated and risky task that requires the efforts of the technical and management teams at an organization. In this paper, we systematically survey the literature concerning the adoption of cloud computing and blockchain. We also compare the adoption trends and draw conclusions for othe...

Extant literature has examined intangible assets at firm and macro-levels but lacks their comprehensive analysis at territorial level. Yet, large discrepancies exist between regions, which cannot be attributed to micro-level variations alone, or observed from a higher level of aggregation to countries. We examine regional economic implications of i...

À partir de l’étude de cas unique d’une société d’accélération de transfert de technologie (SATT) performante, l’article vise à mettre en évidence la tension paradoxale entre valeur micro-économique et valeur territoriale, perçues, et la manière dont celle-ci est managée. Les résultats témoignent d’un processus d’apprentissage, au sein de la SATT i...

This paper studies the contribution of information and communication technology (ICT) to productivity both directly – and indirectly, via externalities that originate in other sectors or countries. Building upon the theoretical model proposed by Basu et al. (2003), we include several features to account for two important aspects of ICT: complementa...

Intangibles, including hard intangibles such as intellectual property rights (IPRs), are important sources of growth and innovation in any context (Bounfour, 2003, Bounfour & Miyagawa, 2005, OECD, 2003, The World Bank, 2006). They are important ingredients in transactions and socio-economising, for example, in the way production and innovation syst...

This paper studies the combined contribution to productivity of four types of intangibles (R&D, software and databases, design and economic competencies) and global value chain (GVC) participation. The analysis is conducted at industry level. GVC participation is analysed using network centrality measures calculated from the World Input-Output Data...

This paper studies the combined contribution to productivity of four types of intangibles (R&D, software and databases, design and economic competencies) and global value chain (GVC) participation. The analysis is conducted at industry level. GVC participation is analysed using network centrality measures calculated from the World Input-Output Data...

This study presents the development and initial use of a practice-based maturity model for technology transfer organisations (TTOs). Unlike previous research on TTO performance, the intention is not to compare TTOs, but to find out if there is a link between the maturity of TTO practices and organisational resources, competences and context, as wel...

This paper estimates the macroeconomic losses related to the cyber‐attacks originating from the information and communications technology (ICT) and the financial sectors. The study accounts for the interdependency of various economic sectors and looks to the cascading effect of cyber‐attacks on production network in the United States and leading Or...

This paper investigates the organizational roles that University Technology Transfer Organizations (UTTOs) adopt in response to their Regional Innovation System (RIS) stakeholders. In a qualitative case study, we focus on ‘systemic’ intermediation and investigate three French UTTOs within their respective RIS. Utilizing a conceptual framework ancho...

Drawing upon an extensive dataset comprising 3,680 cyberattacks on firms listed in 5 stock markets, our main objective is to ascertain the financial market reaction based on a hybrid valuation inspired by the event study methodology and a counterfactual analysis. Analyses concern three dates that are specific to cyberattacks: 1) the accident date;...

This paper analyses the optimal use of formal intellectual property rights (IPR) at the firm level. We examine the impact of combinations of IPR on the firm's productivity in order to study the complementarity or substitution relationship between them. Our data are extracted from two sets of community innovation survey (CIS): CIS IV and CIS 2006. W...

A practice-based maturity model is developed for technology transfer organisations (TTOs) which are open innovation intermediaries for the commercialization of university knowledge. Our model enables the holistic assessment of TTO performance and consists of five dimensions: resources and competences, generic practices, outputs and outcomes, as wel...

Digital transformation can be observed in business as well as in broader society, but we are far from having identified and defined all the issues and implications of this ongoing transformation and how it impacts on a traditional company. In an attempt to better understand this phenomenon and the changing role of IT that it brings with it, this ar...

Purpose Mobile phones are radically transforming micro finance in sub-Saharan Africa, and Kenya in particular. The introduction of the micro financial transaction mobile telephone application, “MPesa,” created a means to facilitate micro transactions without the need for an intermediary, such as a banking system. We posit an econophysics model to...

This paper investigates the influence that stakeholders exert on innovation intermediary organizations within a Regional Innovation System (RIS). In a qualitative case study, we focus on a special form of external technology transfer organization (TTO), university-industry innovation intermediary (UITTO) in France: the SATT-Société d'Accélération d...

A novel form of technology transfer organisation (TTO) is investigated which was created by the French state to foster technology transfer and the commercialisation of research outputs while being anchored in the regional innovation system. Due to this specificity, we explore to what extend their territorial anchoring generates a tension between ec...

The acceluction mode is challenging for companies, their executives and their IT managers. The chapter presents the high stakes, opportunities and risks, related to it, in term of business development, resources reallocation and contracting. The chapter analyses into details the different dimensions of acceluction, its fundamental tensions and the...

Bauman proposed the concept of liquid modernity/the liquid society to characterize current societies. Similarly, enterprises, through the support of digital resources, are developing various degrees and forms of liquidity. The chapter develops the concept of the liquid enterprise through an examination of its different dimensions—time, space, coord...

Beyond a general discussion of big data as the new frontier for business growth, it is important for firms to develop an analytical approach, notably with respect to digital assets. Based on previous arguments, the chapter proposes a categorization of digital assets, their value and risks, and their mode of approach, taking into account the overall...

The acceluction mode calls for an adapted governance for the 2020 digital enterprise. The chapter develops the general principles of governance, especially with regards to the different stakeholders. It specifies the nature of tasks to be achieved, the breakdown of responsibilities as well as the coordination mechanisms. The chapter also details th...

The chapter highlights key IT trends for the digital enterprise. These tendencies will be presented along the key topics for enterprises and their management: business modelling, organization of work, ethical and societal use of digital artifacts, technology and data, regulation. 25 tendencies are identified. They are presented and argumented into...

The Lean production was the key concept proposed by the IMVP program (MIT) of the 1980s. The concept has been later refined into different variants, including the lean management. The Lean production refers to the way OEM optimize the tangible flux within the value chain of the automotive sector, especially between suppliers and OEMs. The research...

This chapter proceeds to the thematic analyses of the 25 tendencies, with the objective of identifying the key building blocks of the emerging production system in digital spaces. Such a characterization is necessary to the design of future scenarios of the digital enterprise and its related ecosystems. It then identifies the key building blocks fo...

Here will take the 2020 as a perspective for analyzing digital transformation of firms and organizations. It is based among other things on “weak signals” identified by the ISD international projects. This chapter presents the program’s main research topics, before considering the elements of emergencies, especially with regards to the key issues o...

Finding what companies will turn into by the year 2020 is rarely the object of such academic work as that delivered by the ISD programme. The traditional concept of Lean is based on constant improvement of the model through the exploitation of the company’s potential. By 2020, the book suggests it will be replaced by acceluction, which is a wider a...

What does the future look like for enterprises post-2020? To address this question, and building on the outputs of the ISD program, this chapter refines the factors that lead to change and disruption in the accelucted enterprise. This includes the emergence of networked abundance that goes beyond the Internet of Things. More generally, this chapter...

This chapter takes a long term perspective for the use of IT artifacts in companies and organizations. It analyses the semantical shift in the use of digital artifacts, from IT to IS to digitality. It also reviews how IT use has been integrated in the organizational design and the specific role of “organizational fit”. The chapter also reviews thre...

This book provides an integrated overview of key trends in digital transformation, taking into consideration five interrelated dimensions: strategy and business models, society, organization, technology and regulation. As such, it provides a framework for the analysis of digital business transformation and its emerging factors, analyzing twenty-fiv...

This paper investigates the effect of intangible assets on value creation for 16 French industries from 1980 to 2007. This work is based on original ntangible investment data build from the French national accounts and encompassing a wide variety of assets. Our research yields several results. First, data analysis shows that, despite common thought...

This chapter discusses the issue of intangibles’ research and policy agenda relevance, in the specific context of innovation growth and market failure. It first reviews the importance of intangibles from the economic growth perspective, building on recent works in economics and management. It poses the importance of refining the research and policy...

‘This book addresses the issue of intangibles’ contribution to growth at macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. It provides a review of a set of new approaches to innovation growth. It also considers the issue of how to invest in intangibles, especially with regard to the market failure issue. The book focusses on three major themes: First it prov...

This paper leverages the concept of absorptive capacity to explore whether similar configurations of intellectual capital (IC) are associated with the performance of relational capital in firms. It proposes a novel implementation of graph theory to analyse similarities in knowledge assets. We use Community Innovation Survey data to examine 5813 man...

Nowadays, companies and organizations are facing a deep economic crisis as a follow-up of the financial crisis that started in 2007. This crisis has affected a great amount of markets and industries around the world. In this context, companies are challenging the way they allocate resources to investments, especially to intangibles. The present res...

Der Blickwinkel dieses Kapitels ist äußerst stimulierend, denn das Problem der Innovation wird als Dilemma fÜr Management und Entscheidungsfindung betrachtet und die traditionelle Sicht auf das intellektuelle Kapital damit kritisch hinterfragt.Die aufgezeigten Aspekte sind insbesondere im Kontext der Entwicklung der strategischen Perspektive der Op...

The perspective taken in this chapter is very stimulating, since it poses the problem of innovation in terms of dilemmas for management and decision making and hereby challenge the traditional intellectual capital perspective; The issues posed here are particularly relevant in the context of the development of open innovation as a strategic perspec...

Un cadre conceptuel est maintenant établi et accepté pour le capital immatériel autour de trois composantes : le capital humain (CH), le capital structurel (CS) et le capital relationnel (CR). Le capital organisationnel est souvent inclus comme composante du capital structurel.

Peut-on concevoir une organisation sans capital organisationnel? La réponse est à l’évidence « non » et, de ce fait, on peut dire que le capital organisationnel est intimement lié à l’émergence de la théorie des organisations en tant que discipline. Sans remonter jusqu’à la nuit des temps de toute action humaine collective, le capital organisationn...

Ce chapitre propose un cadre pouvant servir de base à la définition de modalités de reporting sur le capital organisationnel, dans la perspective de son pilotage stratégique et opérationnel — avec comme point de départ la définition d’un ensemble d’indicateurs qualitatifs et quantitatifs.

La recherche académique, mais également les analystes externes et internes aux entreprises, accordent une importance croissante à la valorisation du capital organisationnel des entreprises. L’exercice est ici délicat dans la mesure où le capital organisationnel a généralement un caractère spécifique : il ne peut faire l’objet de transaction sur le...

Nous venons de le voir, le thème du capital organisationnel n’est pas tout à fait nouveau. C’est un truisme de dire que ce thème est consubstantiel à toute action organisée. Mais le capital organisationnel redevient central en raison de la transformation des entreprises et de l’émergence de nouvelles formes d’organisation des activités : les réseau...

À partir de cette typologie et de la revue de la littérature — et en particulier des travaux de Teece —, il est possible de proposer une définition du capital organisationnel, articulée autour de deux composantes: • l’une, de nature stratégique, qui concerne les capacités stratégiques de l’entreprise, à savoir celles qui lui permettent de saisir le...

Cet ouvrage est volontairement synthétique et constitue une première étape. Il vise, en s’appuyant sur l’état de la recherche internationale et les pratiques des entreprises, à souligner l’importance du pilotage du capital organisationnel dans l’économie de la connaissance d’aujourd’hui. À partir de la revue de la littérature et dans le prolongemen...

En à peine plus de dix ans, parallèlement à l’émergence de nouvelles formes d’organisation (communautés, réseaux, etc.) et à la dématérialisation des activités, le capital organisationnel est devenu un thème central de la réflexion managériale. Sous ce terme, on désigne la capacité d’une entreprise à développer ses performances par la mise en place...

The purpose of this paper is to disseminate information regarding the international research project titled ‘Information System Dynamics’ (ISD) initiated by Club lnformatique des Grandes Entreprises Francaises (IS) (CIGREF), France, an association of French and other European companies representing the users of information systems (IS) (CIGREF 2008...

The question of knowledge transfer has been a core interest for management research. One of the main instruments used in the previous studies is the concept of Ba, based on the "spiral of knowledge creation" conducted within the commonly accepted SECI matrix. When defined by Nonaka and Konno (1998), it gives us a strong understanding that obtaining...

Purpose The paper aims at creating understanding on the dynamics of intellectual capital (IC), which has emerged recently as one of the major issues on the research agenda. The theme is studied from a national point of view. Design/methodology/approach The analysis has been conducted using data from the IMD Competitiveness Report covering the data...

This report has been produced by an expert group, set up by the Directorate General for Research of the European Commission(EC), in order to stimulate Reporting of intellectual capital in research intensive SME’s by identifying on the one hand a number of recommendations to research intensive SME’s and private stakeholders (financial organisations,...

The CIKM project was successfully completed on October 31st, 2003. During 20 months of project work, the interrelationship between Knowledge Management (KM) practice and Innovation in European companies has been analysed and empirically investigated. A theoretical and practical foundation was laid by reviewing a broad range of literature on KM and...

In the knowledge economy, the value of corporations, organizations and individuals is directly related to their knowledge and intellectual capital. This does not only apply to organizations in the private or public sector but also to entire nations. If intangibles and intellectual capital are important to organizations, they are also important to t...

The CIKM project was successfully completed on October 31st, 2003. During 20 months of project work, the interrelationship between Knowledge Management (KM) practice and Innovation in European companies has been analysed and empirically investigated.The empirical field study focused on the industrial sectors of ICT, Financial Services and Mechanica...

Over the last five years several frameworks have been suggested for the development of corporate' competitive advantage, on the basis of their intangible resources. These frameworks are mainly managerially oriented; they require the design of a set of metrics dealing with organisational inputs. Hence the importance of making the link between intern...

The attempt of Kaiser-Frazer to enter the car market benefited from the gap between an unsatisfied demand during the war and an insufficient supply. But, after 1949, its commercial situation deteriorated. Different explanations can be given. The firm suffered from the oligopolistic structure of the market, which prevailed in the United States since...

Intangible investments constitute an emerging and important field of management. The objective of this article is to further consider the problem of intangible resource externalization from a theoretical as well as an operational point of view. The first section reviews the problem of defining intangibles; the second section considers the issue of...

An economic approach to remote-sensing applications needs to be developed to demonstrate the cost–advantage ratio of Earth observation for decision makers. This article aims to conduct such an analysis of the information derived by remote sensing for a specific operational project, following some general chemical consideration about the economic va...

This paper refers to a study (specificaly to its chapter 7)1 carried out by Euroconsult for ESA on the key characteristics of European R&D in the satellite communications user Earth segment. The study was initiated by the Working Group on Satellite Communications Policy2 of the Joint Board on Communications Satellite Programmes (JCB), which was est...

This paper presents the results of a study aimed at understanding the technical and economic structure and the organization of the sector of Earth observation data processing and interpretation in Europe. An in-depth survey has been conducted within thirty European organizations supplying value-added services in this sector. The key factors in the...

Three case studies of developing countries behaviour toward the global strategy of the automobile enterprise: — The analysis of the crisis which the automobile industry is coping with refers to the study of the behaviour of numerous actors (the big firm, the authorities, the trade unions, the consumer, the developing countries). This paper deals wi...

Une approche de la valeur des systèmes d'information géographique à base de données satellitaires nécessite la mise en évidence de l'avantage compétitif de ces systèmes pour les décideurs, publics ou privés. Le principal objectif de cet article est de montrer, à partir d'une étude de cas - un SIG relatif au suivi de la déforestation tropicale -, la...

Le devenir des organisations est maintenant largement reconnu comme dépendant de leur capacité à créer et à gérer leurs connaissances. Selon certains économistes, nous entrons dans l'ère d'un nouveau capitalisme : un capitalisme cognitif, au sein duquel la connaissance devient la principale source d'accumulation. Les technologies de l'information e...