Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

The Importance <strong>of</strong> Knowledge in Regional Development
Dan Săvescu 1 , Mihaela-Georgia Sima 2 and Simona-Clara Bârsan 3
1 Transilvania University <strong>of</strong> Braşov, Faculty <strong>of</strong> Product Design and Environment
2 Bucharest Academy <strong>of</strong> Economic Studies
3 Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation Cluj-Napoca, Technology
Transfer Centre
dsavescu@unitbv.ro
georgiasima@yahoo.com
simonaclara_barsan@yahoo.com
Abstract: The paper presents <strong>the</strong> relationship between knowledge creation, knowledge management and
transfer processes, <strong>the</strong> intellectual capital <strong>of</strong> an organization and <strong>the</strong> role <strong>of</strong> knowledge in regional development.
First <strong>of</strong> all, one defines <strong>the</strong> main involved elements: knowledge management, knowledge society, knowledge
based economy, intellectual capital. Then, <strong>the</strong> correlation between <strong>the</strong>m is explained. The authors have
considered necessary to analyze <strong>the</strong> main identified entities that play an important role in regional development.
One has started from <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>sis that entities such as business incubators, clusters, knowledge centres or
nods are <strong>the</strong> main “locations” where knowledge is created. Each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se entities is taken into detailed analysis,
as a source <strong>of</strong> competitive advantage, emphasizing <strong>the</strong> reason for its existence, <strong>the</strong> facilities <strong>of</strong>fered to <strong>the</strong>
“knowledge creators”, <strong>the</strong> impact it has on <strong>the</strong> community it is build in and <strong>the</strong> way each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m provides a
certain effect on local, regional or general development. Since <strong>the</strong> authors have come to <strong>the</strong> conclusion that <strong>the</strong>
proposed entities actually do have a strong impact on regional development, due to <strong>the</strong> fact that <strong>the</strong>y have
studied <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ory applied at <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se entities, <strong>the</strong>y have chosen to present <strong>the</strong> results obtained at <strong>the</strong>
level <strong>of</strong> two <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m, respectively, <strong>the</strong> Technological and Business Incubator ITA Pro-Energ, built within
Transilvania University <strong>of</strong> Braşov, Romania, and <strong>the</strong> cluster created around <strong>the</strong> Commercial Society
“Electroprecizia” Sacele, Romania. The paper also explains <strong>the</strong> notion <strong>of</strong> competitive region and its main
components. These components need to be reflected into <strong>the</strong> regional politics whose application should lead to
<strong>the</strong> development and efficient valorisation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> whole intellectual capital <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> region. As an important
conclusion, <strong>the</strong> authors have stated that <strong>the</strong> reason for knowledge and intellectual capital accumulation at
regional level is to influence <strong>the</strong> strategies <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> regional actors and to create <strong>the</strong> necessary competences for an
efficient collaboration towards growing <strong>the</strong> potential <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> whole community.
Keywords: business incubators, clusters, intellectual capital, knowledge management
1. Introduction
The purpose <strong>of</strong> this paper is to debate <strong>the</strong> role <strong>of</strong> knowledge in regional development.
For that reason, before actually weighting <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> different factors influential for <strong>the</strong>
phenomenon, certain notions are to be defined, so as to speak a common language.
Knowledge management is a part <strong>of</strong> general management dealing with knowledge actions, such as:
organizing, blocking and filtering, ga<strong>the</strong>ring, depositing, sharing, dissemination and knowledge
objects, such as: information, data, experiences, evaluations, analysis and initiatives. It supposes
capturing knowledge right where is created and applying <strong>the</strong>m into a constructive process.
According to Sveiby (Sveiby, 1997), knowledge and intellectual capital are physical “secret” assets <strong>of</strong>
a company that supports Stewart’s idea (Stewart, 1997) <strong>of</strong> creating some competitive advantages for
a good management <strong>of</strong> this kind <strong>of</strong> assets. There are two ways <strong>of</strong> developing <strong>the</strong> concept <strong>of</strong>
intellectual capital: <strong>the</strong> first one is centred on strategy and <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r one on measurement. The
strategic point <strong>of</strong> view begins with <strong>the</strong> “learning organization” and with <strong>the</strong> relation between
knowledge and value successful realization.
The intangible character <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> new type <strong>of</strong> capital generates several problems.
Sveiby (2000) defined <strong>the</strong> intellectual capital as a sum <strong>of</strong> three components: human capital, structural
capital and customer capital. It represents <strong>the</strong> intellectual material that has been formalised, captured
and exploited for producing more valuable assets; it is acknowledged as value in most organisations,
but it is not measured or evaluated in any financial statement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> company, excepting <strong>the</strong> reached
stock market value;
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