Spatial Mobility of Knowledge: A Proposal for a More Realistic Communication Model

Abstract The recurring erroneous predictions about the impact of the Internet on the spatial distribution and “mobility” of codified knowledge, most deficits in research about knowledge spillovers, and knowledge sharing in clusters, organizations and networks can be traced back to an oversimplification of the communication process between a producer of knowledge and the recipients of information, a missing distinction between knowledge and information, and insufficient categorizations of various types and grades of knowledge. The categories of implicit and explicit or tacit and codified knowledge are not sufficient; they must be supplemented by categories focusing on the grades and carriers of knowledge. The main part of this paper focuses on the communication process between two individuals—a communicator and a recipient of information. An extended and more realistic communicator/recipient model is the basic cornerstone of any research about the mobility of knowledge and will also influence studies on business ecologies, knowledge spillovers and networks. The paper first discusses some of the assumptions that lead to erroneous conclusions about the mobility of knowledge and then proposes a communication model between a communicator and a recipient of information that could more adequately fulfil this need.

[1]  H. Simon,et al.  Rational choice and the structure of the environment. , 1956, Psychological review.

[2]  Georg Franck,et al.  Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit : ein Entwurf , 1998 .

[3]  P. J. Tichenor,et al.  MASS MEDIA FLOW AND DIFFERENTIAL GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE , 1970 .

[4]  Chun Wei Choo,et al.  The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge , 2002 .

[5]  Karl H. Wolf.  Clashes of Knowledge: Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in Science and Religion , 2009, J. Documentation.

[6]  U. Matthiesen,et al.  Wissensmilieus — Zur sozialen Konstruktion und analytischen Rekonstruktion eines neuen Sozialraum-Typus , 2004 .

[7]  P. Baumard.  Tacit Knowledge in Organizations , 1999 .

[8]  William Knoke,et al.  Bold New World: The Essential Road Map to the Twenty-First Century , 1995 .

[9]  M. Scheler,et al.  Die Wissenformen und die Gesellschaft , 1960 .

[10]  Meric S. Gertler,et al.  Tacit knowledge and the economic geography of context, or The undefinable tacitness of being (there) , 2003 .

[11]  野中 郁次郎,et al.  The Knowledge-Creating Company: How , 1995 .

[12]  Georg Franck,et al.  Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit , 1993 .

[13]  Alice Lam.  Tacit Knowledge, Organizational Learning and Societal Institutions: An Integrated Framework , 2000 .

[14]  Johannes Glückler.  Economic Geography and the Evolution of Networks , 2007 .

[15]  Joachim Funke,et al.  Milieus of Creativity , 2009 .

[16]  John Short,et al.  The social psychology of telecommunications , 1976 .

[17]  P. Cohendet,et al.  The theoretical and policy implications of knowledge codification , 2001 .

[18]  Meusburger Peter,et al.  Milieus of Creativity: The Role of Places, Environments, and Spatial Contexts , 2009 .

[19]  Johannes Glückler,et al.  Geography of Reputation: The City as the Locus of Business Opportunity , 2007 .

[20]  M. Callon,et al.  De la Coordination , 1999 .

[21]  Manfred M. Fischer,et al.  Innovation, knowledge creation and systems of innovation , 2001 .

[22]  J. Sempsey.  The death of distance: How the communications revolution will change our lives , 1998 .

[23]  C. P. Goodman,et al.  The Tacit Dimension , 2003 .

[24]  C. Karlsson,et al.  Knowledge Spillovers in a Spatial Context — A Critical Review and Assessment , 2001 .

[25]  Wendell Bell,et al.  The Third Wave. , 1982 .

[26]  A. Amin,et al.  Architectures of Knowledge: Firms, Capabilities, and Communities , 2004 .

[27]  D. Livingstone,et al.  The Spaces of Knowledge: Contributions towards a Historical Geography of Science , 1995 .

[28]  P. Cohendet,et al.  The Economics Of Knowledge: The Debate About Codification And Tacit Knowledge , 2000 .

[29]  Peter Maskell,et al.  Localized Learning and Industrial Competitiveness , 1995 .

[30]  Gernot Grabher,et al.  Bad Company? The Ambiguity of Personal Knowledge Networks , 2006 .

[31]  Paul A. David,et al.  The explicit economics of knowledge codification and tacitness , 2000 .

[32]  H. M. Collins,et al.  THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE: STUDIES OF CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE , 1983 .

[33]  C. Meusburger.  Cosmological measurements, time and observables in (2+1)-dimensional gravity , 2008, 0811.4155.

[34]  Arthur S. Reber,et al.  Cognition Unawares. (Book Reviews: Implicit Learning and Tacit Knowledge. An Essay on the Cognitive Unconscious.) , 1996 .

[35]  P. Meusburger.  Bildungsgeographie : Wissen und Ausbildung in der räumlichen Dimension , 1998 .

[36]  Gernot Grabher,et al.  The Neglected King: The Customer in the New Knowledge Ecology of Innovation , 2008 .

[37]  J. Goddard.  Office communications and office location: A review of current research , 1971 .

[38]  J. Goddard,et al.  Telecommunications and office location , 1977 .

[39]  M. Ruffin.  On being digital. , 1995, Physician executive.

[40]  Richard Wise,et al.  Global paradox , 1996, The Lancet.

[41]  E. Relph.  Place and placelessness , 1976 .

[42]  Patrick Armstrong,et al.  Putting Science in its Place: Geographies of Scientific Knowledge , 2005 .

[43]  Manfred M. Fischer,et al.  The Geography of Knowledge Spillovers between High-Technology Firms in Europe - Evidence from a Spatial Interaction Modelling Perspective , 2006 .

[44]  A. Venables,et al.  The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade , 2000 .

[45]  J. Agar,et al.  Making Space for Science , 1998 .

[46]  Diana Morris,et al.  The communications factor in office decentralization , 1976 .