Learning to Communicate in the Production of Collective Knowledge

Abstract

Worldwide, the generation of technological innovations seems localized in a few technological districts characterized by a web of communication channels among innovators. Within technological districts technological knowledge acquires the features of a collective activity that is the result of the joint undertaking and the complementary efforts of a variety of learning agents connected by communication channels. The role of communication in the production of technological knowledge is emerging as an important area for empirical and theoretical research in the economics of innovation. The dynamics of regional clustering of innovation activities within technological districts in fact seems to be shaped by the interplay among knowledge externalities, communication activities, and increasing returns (Antonelli 1999, 2001).