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Organisations, Innovation and Complexity: New Perspectives on the Knowledge Economy

9^th-10^th September 2004
University of Manchester, Manchester,
England, UK.

Collective Knowledge: Knowledge Complexity and Cumulative Evolution

Cristiano Antonelli

Università di Torino,
Torino, Italy

Abstract

In the economics of localized technological knowledge each firm has a heterogeneous and distinct knowledge base, rooted in its own ‘locus’ defined by learning procedures and the irreversibility of tangible and intangible assets. When knowledge exhibits high levels of super modular complementarity and networking costs are low firms have an incentive to implement the convergence of their own knowledge and competence, so as to increase knowledge complementarity. Commons of collective knowledge emerge when the active participation of firms pushes the direction of the internal research and learning activities towards higher levels of complementarity so as to build a systemic integration. Collective knowledge is characterized not only by partial appropriability and shared property rights but also by the role of the intentional effort, participation and contribution of each agent. Collective knowledge is a shared activity that can be implemented only by interactive agents that belong to a community of action and understanding. Collective knowledge is the result of the valorization of the elements of latent complementarity among the bits of knowledge possessed by each localized agent (Antonelli, 2001).

Knowledge networking activities help identifying and accessing the sources of external knowledge. On these bases the firm will select and focus the direction of internal learning and research activities so as to integrate them with the characteristics of the external knowledge available. Knowledge networking becomes a powerful factor in assessing the direction of the generation of new knowledge. In so doing firms valorize and implement the latent complementarities and fully exploit them. By means of knowledge networking firms direct their research and learning efforts towards the emerging commons of collective knowledge. The emergence of technological systems is the ultimate result of such an effort of exploration, creation and exploitation of knowledge complementarities and paves the way to localized increasing returns (Antonelli, 2001).

The analysis of the dynamics of collective knowledge within the framework of the economics of localized technological change can help to provide a synthesis of the divide between Schumpeterian punctuationism and Marshallian gradualism.

Smooth, Marshallian dynamics can easily generate major Schumpeterian discontinuities. The divide between the theories of punctuated and gradual cumulative growth can be reconciled when the essence of the Schumpeterian and Marshallian approach is properly combined. The economics of localized technological change provides an original framework to model the dynamics of introduction of new technologies. In this approach, the introduction of technological innovations is the result of the interaction between the inducement to change the technology generated by the mismatch between plans and related irreversible commitments and expectations and the interplay between positive and negative externalities provided respectively by technological spillover and networking costs.

Small variations in the parameters of the positive and negative externalities and in the feedback affecting the extent of the mismatch and hence the levels of the inducement can generate either gradual or discontinuous changes. The correct appreciation of the interactions between individual action and population dynamics makes room for complex dynamics and provides an integrated framework able to explain in a single context both Marshallian gradualism and Schumpeterian discontinuities. Marshallian gradualism and Schumperian punctuationism can be considered as two extreme possibilities between which a continuum of solutions can be identified.

The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. Paragraph 2 presents a brief exposition of the two contrasting views about continuity in economic and technological change. Paragraph 3 introduces the notion of localized technological change, stresses the analysis of positive and negative externalities and articulates the feedback between technological change and mismatch. The conclusions summarize the main results of the work and put them in a broader perspective.

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