Abstract
The paper explores knowledge recombination by analysing how knowledge networks in established technological fields influenced the formation of the emerging field of green shipping in the period 2007–2018. Previous research has demonstrated that embeddedness, proximity, and status are important mechanisms for the evolution of single technological fields. We investigate if these mechanisms also apply across technological fields. By employing dynamic social network analysis models, we find that actors transferred knowledge across technological fields through (re)combination mechanisms, which affected the emergence of the new technological field, but in different ways. While embeddedness and proximity played an important role, status was less important.
Highlights
The idea of innovation as a process of tapping into and combining existing knowledge is central in the geography of innovation literature
We have explored how these mechanisms work across technological fields, recombining existing knowledge and creating diversified knowledge networks, and how they contribute to foster the development of knowledge networks in emerging technological fields
We have demonstrated that some mechanisms in green fuel networks, such as structural embeddedness and different dimensions of proximity, are strong drivers for the evolution of the emerging green shipping field
Summary
The idea of innovation as a process of tapping into and combining existing knowledge is central in the geography of innovation literature. Knowledge from related technological fields is (re)combined in the development of possible ‘solutions’, thereby creating the emerging technological field (Kalthaus, 2016, König et al, 2011, Wagner et al, 2019). These ‘solutions’ are often supported by policy tools (e.g. subsidized R&D), motivated either by traditional market-failure arguments relating to underinvestment in R&D or by the need to stimulate knowledge creation in particular technological fields that may help to address grand societal challenges (Grillitsch et al, 2019, Laranja et al, 2008, Weber and Rohracher, 2012). There is scant evidence for whether and how these mechanisms apply across multiple technological fields, and what role knowledge networks in established technological fields play in the formation of knowledge networks in new technological fields
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