ABSTRACT
Each firm is initially assigned a know ledge endowment (know ledge base, KB), which is defined as a subset of the whole know ledge present in the sys tem. Following previous work (Morone & Taylor, 2004), we shall pursue the idea that know ledge is structured. In other words, know ledge requires know ledge to be assim il ated (Ancori et al., 2000). The model is based on the as sump tion that the pro cess of learning (i.e. acquiring new know ledge) occurs only at the initialization time of the simulation; this is a sim plifying hypo thesis which allows us to concentrate on the know ledge integration pro cess and on the in nova tion activity carried out during the main simulation phases. The sys tem know ledge is repres ented by a network of nodes and links: nodes can be thought of as pos sible skills or technologies to be learnt by the firms, and links define the requirements of each node. The sys tem know ledge structure therefore defines the way in which sub sequent skills depend upon the prior acquisition of other skills.
