KM/IC Language Games: researching intangibles through the prism of the business model

2nd EDEN Seminar on Intangibles & IC 1

KM/IC Language Games:researching intangibles through the prism of the business model

1-Oct-2011


projects

• levels of analysis

• homogeneity - sampling

• how do we fit people in ?

• methodological aesthetic

globalsocietalsectoralindustrystrategic groupcommunity of practicefirmproduction groupindividual…

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anxieties around direction & control

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accounting, intangibles, book/marketpost-Crash - external asset & process visibilitypublic / private sector relationsshift to servicesglobalization, new competitioninternal asset & process visibility, ITasset / infrastructurespecificity / universalityhumanizing, ethics, emotion, socializing, CSR, sustainabilityrates of techno-change, impact on Kimpact of financial services on rest of economy

metricsanalyticsways of thinkinglanguage

beyond ‘asset’ - intangibles

beyond ‘rationality’ - emotion, bounded rationality, ethics

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tangiblemeasurable

intangiblenot measured

knownstrategic value ✔

no known strategic value

universe of things known to exist= resources

codification

valuation

beyond ‘assets’ - to intangibles


what about things not known to exist - yet ?

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knowledge-absence & human agency

two contrasting but complementary aestheticsknowledge-presence - measuring, computing, rational deciding, rigorously determined (theory-based) practice

Knightian uncertainty or knowledge absence - creative (agentic) responding, bricolage, learning-by-doing

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measure-driven

agency-driven


what language/s for ‘beyond rationality’ ?

• la-la land, new wave, unstructured (natural) language …• complementarity with rigorous (formal) language• concept of ‘tool’• non-rivalrous resources, knowledge as non-rivalrous• choosing (synthesizing) vs choosing (rigorously)• ethical entailments

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measure-driven

agency-driven


spiral of knowing, learning & doing

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measuredriven

agencydriven

tool

artifact


types of knowing - and why KM

• episteme, techne, phronesis, metis, …• know-how, know-what, know-why, know-when,

know-feel, know-faith, etc….• explicit / tacit• logos, ethos, pathos• DIKW• know-ability of the universe• knowledge as entailment of knowledge-absence• substantiality• valuing skills, reputation, risks• knowledge and difference

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OK - fancy enough, but how does this all work in business ?

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paradigm shift in research language - from causal

modeling to clarifying agency


what is curious about these pictures ?


before the ‘discovery’ of perspective


Leonardo da Vinci 1498

Perugino 1481

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the beginning of the Age of Science - Bacon (1600), Newton (1680)

new paradigm of objective understanding


is this all we need to know about … ?

the way it looks - or the way it really is ?

measurement and ‘the real’


are these simply ‘bad’ pictures ?


• language is a human/social tool for specific purposes and contexts

• NO universal research tools

• framing the research question - crucial first step

• researching agency and its place in business is a different kind of problem


agency-oriented language ?

• potential rather than existence• agency NOT rigor• creativity / growth / innovation /

entrepreneurship - NOT allocation • non-rivalrous resources - ‘tools’• capital ?

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data meanings

language/s

practices

values

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dynamic in-the-world concept of our ways of knowing - D, M, P, L + ‘values’

tacit K


relax & recap

• collision - synthesis of causal and agentic ways of knowing

• e.g. interplay of rivalrous and non-rivalrous resources (assets and potentials)

• intangibles are of two very different types - unmeasured assets (ICa) and unrealized potentials (ICp)

• how can we control these differing resources ?• unmeasured assets - simply do better, improve

accounting, e.g. churn rate• unrealized potentials - i.e. human agency• entrepreneurial imagination - vision• agentic activities of the people comprising

network that creates value

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measured unmeasured

causal asset - TCa ICa

agentic tool - TCp ICp

realized unrealized


decision making with TC & IC

• firm = sum (TC + ICa)• firm = product (TC*ICp)• Penrose, problematize resources• supplementary balance sheet might capture

some ICa - but NOT ICp• valuation - cost, market, income, ranking• valuation of combination only through

application in a specific context• capital ?

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concept of ‘capital’• capital, land & labor• Fisher’s definition - hayrake, standing apart, carry forward• capital is always potential thus NOT an asset• value demands re-attachment, sale, application, use, consumption• transaction realizes value - in the real world is always contingent• capital needs agentic practice to realize any value• without this (e.g. a theory of the firm) capital is without value• does use increase or consume ?• capital’s value is contingent, indefinite, subject to ‘manipulation’• human, structural, relational, organizational, social, cultural, …• usury (appropriation of others’ agency)

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supply (capitals) & demand (?)

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TCa ICa

TCp ICp

TCa ICa

TCp ICp

why ‘supply-side’ TC and IC only ?accounting ignores (?) created demand and expectations as assets -

inability to account for the costly creation of ‘economic rents’


towards managing agency & potentiality

• framing• constraining• agentic input• encouraging• preparing• learning• sustaining

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• methodological aesthetic of the agentic paradigm• NO single causalities• ALWAYS multiple causalities• ambiguities create ‘space’ for agentic inputs

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building the business model

18-Jun-2011

technological advance

competitor’smarketing

labor market

governmentstandards

funding

entrepreneur’s moral/ethics

entrepreneurialimagination - vision

seeing the business model as a constructed and

context-specific language


managing one’s own agentic capabilities

• emotional - EI, faith, know thyself• preparation• openness & doubt - critical position• study• courage, determination, persistence, …• Clausewitz’s sense of ‘the intelligent person’

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managing others’ agency

• persuasion NOT incentives• management as a talking game• logos, ethos, pathos• rhetoric• structuring and delivering persuasive arguments• getting others to do what you cannot - and

therefore cannot direct them to do• sustaining the productive relationship• principal-agent theory

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generating value

• through the lens of the entrepreneurial imagination

• see what might be valued• how it might be generated• who else’s agency is necessary• how they might be engaged• how sustained through time• BM as space (ba) and time (clock)• value generation as work

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TCa ICa

TCp ICp

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double spiral - non-zero costs - non-equilibrium human agency

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agentic work as making a difference in a real and

imperfect world


concluding comments

• ‘knowledge’ is an empty and confusing notion• Knowledge Age, intangibles as drivers of SCA etc?• discourse is between causal and agentic, not tangible and intangible• Post-Modern era as agency-intensive rather than information-intensive• why?• customer power + globalized competition = disappearance of

monopoly rents = drive to innovation• what are ‘services’ if not agency-intensive ?• KM/IC impetus does NOT come out of the difference between tools

and skills - but from the uncertainty-driven difference between measured and potential

• KM/IC discourse is a path to understanding value and growth - plus intermediate issues such as ‘business models’, ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘work’

1-Oct-2011

KM/IC Language Games: researching intangibles through the prism of the business model

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