Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in competence and research agendas, the levels of trust, and the institutional setting.
Geographic proximity plays a key role (Boschma, 2005).
Firms that have access to cheaper external knowledge, can generate a larger amount
of knowledge with a given amount of resources available to fund research activities. The
unit costs of knowledge generated in a conducive environment are clearly lower than the
unit costs of the knowledge generated in a 'hostile' context by a single i rm able to rely
almost exclusively on its own internal competence.
This analysis has many important implications for the role of the local context into
which i rms are embedded. It is clear, for instance, that when and where external knowl-
edge is cheap, both because of low purchasing costs in the markets for codii ed knowl-
edge, and low knowledge governance costs, i rms will rely less on internal learning and
research activities. On the contrary, when and where the access conditions to external
knowledge are less easy, i rms will rely more on internal research and learning activi-
ties. This analysis provides a clue to understanding the puzzling evidence about the low
levels of formal research activities of i rms localized in fertile and dynamic technological
districts (Antonelli, 2008b).
4. Pecuniary knowledge externalities
The new evidence provided by the applied economics of knowledge about the costs of
acquisition of external knowledge (Cohen and Levinthal, 1989 and 1990), the identii ca-
tion of the dual role of technological knowledge, as both an input and output, elaborated
by David (1993), and the new understanding about technological knowledge as a distrib-
uted factor (Hayek, 1945; Martin, 1999 and 2007) have brought important changes to
the theory. Let us consider them in turn.
The acquisition of technological knowledge requires some dedicated resources.
Technological knowledge spills into the atmosphere, but its use entails some costs.
Imitation costs are relevant as much as knowledge governance costs in terms of transac-
tion, interaction and communication costs. Because of the intrinsic non-exhaustibility
of knowledge, however, the costs of existing knowledge are far below the costs of its
generation. Even after the proper assessment of knowledge governance costs it becomes
more and more evident that their levels can be lower than the costs of early generation,
at least in specii c and positive geographic, historic, institutional and sectoral contexts
(Antonelli, 2007 and 2008a).
The understanding of the key role of knowledge as an input in the production of new
knowledge (David, 1993) adds new elements to understanding the intrinsic complemen-
tarity between external and internal sources of knowledge for the production of new
knowledge. The legacy of Hayek (1945) i nds new support: technological knowledge is
viewed as dispersed and fragmented into a variety of complementary and yet specii c and
idiosyncratic applications and contexts.
In such a new context, where knowledge is viewed as a collective activity, the appli-
cation of the notion of pecuniary externalities to the economics of knowledge makes it
possible:
1.
To qualify the systemic characteristics that favor the generation of technological
knowledge. Agglomeration within technological systems, both in geographical and
technological space, favors the generation of new knowledge only in specii c contexts
