Innovaton network.docVIP

Innovation network Innovation is increasingly recognized as requiring the convergence of many sources of knowledge and skill, usually linked in the form of a network. Today, few innovations can be assigned to a single specific technological field or even a specific firm (e.g. Klein, 1992). Accordingly, firms cannot expect to keep pace with the development of all relevant technologies without drawing on external knowledge sources. In this respect, today innovation networks are widely considered as an efficient mean of industrial organization of complex RD processes. In most of the recent research on industrial economics and new innovation theory the increasing complexity of knowledge, the accelerating pace of the creation of knowledge and the shortening of industry life cycles are considered to be responsible for the rising importance of innovation networks.[1] Mechanisms of learning and knowledge creation play a decisive role in the emergence of networks. In this light, networks are to be considered as a component of the emerging knowledge based society, in which knowledge is crucial for economic growth and competitiveness. In the knowledge based society not only the quantity of knowledge used is greater but also the mechanisms of knowledge creation and utilization are changing. The contributions of the sociological literature on innovation and industry dynamics complements the work of evolutionary economics at the micro-level. Network analysis has revealed that new technological innovations are often a social construct rather than or in addition to emanating from scientific and technological advances. Network relationships, which complement traditional markets and hierarchies, have become more and more important for the production of knowledge. Systematic efforts using concepts such as actor networks (Callon 1992) or socio-technical constituencies (Molina 1993) have provided initial, if rather static analyses, but do not allow one to study and understand the dynami