A study on policy measure for knowledge-based management in ICT companies: focused on appropriability mechanisms

This study investigated the status of appropriability mechanisms and relevant policy measures as an option to secure the returns on R&D investment, which businesses employ to create new knowledge and competitiveness for knowledge-based management. Also, it conducted the AHP analysis of responses from a range of ICT-related experts surveyed. Moreover, to explore the dynamic structure of appropriability mechanisms from a holistic dynamic perspective, this study drew up a causal loop diagram (CLD) about system dynamics methodology. System dynamics is an approach to realistically modeling a series of causalities and analytically simulating their dynamic variation. System dynamics incorporates those causalities into a cognitive map, plots the status and change of variables on a stock-flow diagram, and applies historical data to derive realistic coefficients. Also, system dynamics has an advantage of drawing up scenarios in line with changing external environment factors or top management’s strategic orientation and simulating scenario-specific outcomes. Finally, to compare the combined options in terms of the effects of different scenarios on the growth of appropriability over time, a simulation model was developed based on the CLD and AHP analysis results. This paper derived some policy implications for knowledge-based management from the analytic simulation based on different scenarios and suggested responsive measures.