I-Corps: Knowledge Markets

拟议的活动是由马歇尔·范·阿尔斯泰恩(Pi)、沈大伟(创业领袖)和罗伯特·劳埃德(导师)组成的团队完成I-Corp计划。基于之前的0925004年度国家科学基金会拨款，范阿拉斯泰和沈阳研究了知识市场对企业内部信息共享和员工生产率的影响。实证研究表明，向工人提供知识市场可以对生产率产生很大的积极影响。他们还创建了易货贸易，这是一个原型知识市场，已在几所大学的课堂环境中成功使用，以促进学生的学习。智力上的贡献是利用经济学理论来优化众包。在i-Corp项目的过程中，范·阿尔斯泰恩、沈和劳埃德将根据早期客户反馈验证公司的商业模式，同时在成功的学术原型的基础上完成原型商业产品。已经与澳大利亚联邦银行建立了一个原型客户关系，并正在与其他潜在的企业客户进行讨论。50多年来，各组织一直在通过知识共享寻求收益，实施建议箱、内部网、共享驱动器，现在是社交维基。尽管在全球进行了大量投资，但公司在吸引参与者、高效地产生新想法以及准确评估这些想法方面存在困难。成功执行这些任务的技术有可能广泛增加信息获取并显著提高商业生产率。基于对一家日本银行的实证研究，该团队发现，知识市场的使用增加一个标准差，就可以将员工的生产率提高10%。国家经济研究局和欧洲经济协会对这些结果进行了同行审查。世界银行也要求使用该小组的工具。经济学家普遍认为，知识生产是工人生产率的关键因素，而工人生产率反过来又是工资和经济增长的主要驱动力。如果该团队能够大规模复制这些结果中的一小部分，可能会对美国和世界经济福利产生巨大的积极影响。

The proposed activity is the completion of the I-Corp program by the team of Marshall Van Alstyne (PI), Dawei Shen (entrepreneurial lead), and Robert Lloyd (mentor). Based on prior NSF grant 0925004, Van Alastyne and Shen have studied effects of knowledge markets on information sharing and worker productivity within firms. Empirical research suggests that provision of knowledge markets to workers can have large positive effects on the productivity. They have also created Barter, a prototype knowledge market that has been successfully used in classroom settings at several universities to enhance student learning. The intellectual contribution is to use economic theory to optimize crowdsourcing. Over the course of the I-Corp program, Van Alstyne, Shen, and Lloyd will validate the company business model in light of early customer feedback while completing a prototype commercial product based on the successful academic prototype. A prototype customer relationship with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has already been established and discussions are underway with other potential enterprise customers.Organizations have sought gains through knowledge sharing for more than 50 years, implementing suggestion boxes, intranets, share drives, and now social wikis. Despite significant global investments, firms have had difficulty coaxing participation, efficiently generating new ideas, and accurately valuing those ideas. Techniques to successfully perform these tasks have the potential to broadly increase information access and dramatically increase commercial productivity. Based on an empirical study of a Japanese bank, the team found that one standard deviation increase in use of a knowledge market improved worker productivity by 10%. The National Bureau of Economic Research and European Economic Association peer reviewed these results. The World Bank has also asked to use the team's tools. Economists broadly argue that knowledge production is a key factor in worker productivity, which in turn is a major driver of wages and economic growth. If the team can replicate even a small portion of these results on a large scale, it could have an enormous positive impact on US and world economic welfare.