Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
introduced the strong hypothesis that technological change can take place only in a
limited technical space, dei ned in terms of factor intensity (Arrow, 1962b; Penrose,
1959). Technological change is localized because it has limited externalities and af ects
only a limited range of the techniques, that is those contained by a given isoquant, which
is identii ed by the actual context of learning, in the proximity of equilibrium conditions
where the i rms have been producing. In other words technological change can only take
place where i rms have been able to learn: localization here is strictly dei ned in terms of
factor intensity and with respect to the techniques in place at each point in time.
The localized approach paves the way to implementing a broader understanding of
what determines and conditions the generation of technological knowledge. The notion
of localized technological knowledge in fact makes it possible to emphasize the role of
knowledge as a joint-product of the economic and productive activity. Agents learn
how, when, where and what, also and mainly through experience, accumulated in daily
routines. Firms, however, can also generate new technological knowledge by means of
research and development activities: learning is not the single input into the generation
of new knowledge (Antonelli, 1995 and 1999).
The introduction of new technologies is constrained by how much competence and
experience has been accumulated through learning processes in specii c technical and
contextual procedures. Agents, in this approach, can generate new knowledge only in
limited domains and i elds where they have accumulated sui cient levels of competence
and experience. A strong complementarity must be assumed between learning, as a
knowledge input, and other knowledge inputs such as R&D laboratories, within each
i rm (Antonelli, 2001).
Learning indeed is one of the basic sources of new technological knowledge. As such
it exerts a strong and clear ef ect in terms of dei ning the cognitive space into which each
i rm can expand its current technological base. As a consequence the new technologi-
cal knowledge generated by each i rm is constrained within the proximity of its current
activities. In other words, learning exerts a powerful localizing ef ect, which limits the
spectrum of possible discoveries. At the same time however the generation of new knowl-
edge can take a wide variety of possible directions impinging on both the specii c form of
learning that is actively implemented and the context in which it takes place (Antonelli,
1995, 1999, 2001).
The transformation of a competence based on learning processes into new, actual
technological knowledge requires specii c and dedicated ef ort. The generation of new
technological knowledge can be considered to be the specii c activity of the i rm and
its distinctive function within the economic system: the i rm is indeed the locus of
technological discovery. Yet discovery and creativity are not automatic, incremental,
past dependent and hence deterministic activities guided by the sheer accumulation of
internal competence based on tacit learning, but rather the result of a complex path-
dependent process where at each point in time i rms make explicit and intentional ef orts
to generate new technological knowledge. 2 Such ef orts are most likely to be successful
when a number of contextual and external conditions apply (Antonelli, 2007).
3. External knowledge as a production factor
In order to generate new knowledge, i rms need to combine and integrate internal sources
of knowledge such as intramural research and development activities and learning proc-
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