ABSTRACT
Economists and scholars of technical change are increasingly underlining the role of knowledge as being a determining factor in how successfully firms and national economies perform. This focus has led policy makers in Europe and the OECD countries to shift towards policies aiming at strengthening the ability of actors in a national context – particularly firms, universities and research establishments – to make efficient use of new knowledge. The First Action Plan for Innovation in Europe (European Commission [EC] 1996: 6) explicitly state that the efficient use of new knowledge depends on three factors: ‘the ability to produce knowledge, the mechanisms for disseminating it as widely as possible, and the aptitude of the individuals, companies and organizations concerned to absorb and use it’. Of particular interest in this book are the description and analysis of the mechanisms for knowledge sharing and transfer, which enable the flow of knowledge among different actors.
