ANTONELLI C. (2000) Collective knowledge communication and innovation: the evidence of technological districts, Reg. Studies 34 , 535-547. Technological knowledge is a collective good in that its generation is the result of a process that combines pieces of information and knowledge that are owned by a variety of parties and cannot be traded as such. With low transaction and communication costs technological externalities can fully deploy their effects in terms of increasing returns and positive feedbacks. The conditions and features of communication processes explain the clustering of innovations in well de ned regional spaces. Localization in technological districts featured by multichannel communications systems favours access to external knowledge, now viewed as an essential intermediary input in the generation of technological knowledge, and encourages the introduction of localized technological changes, leading to self-reinforcing mechanisms based upon localized increasing returns. ANTONELLI C. (2000) La transmission de la connaissance collective et l'innovation: des preuves provenant des districts technologiques: Reg. Studies 34 , 535-547. La connaisasance technologique est un bien collectif dans la mesure ou elle resulte d'un processus qui allie des renseignements et des connaissances possedes en copropriete qui ne peuvent pas etre echanges en tant que telle. Etant donne les couts des transactions et de la communication peu eleves, les effets externes puissent se deployer entierement en termes de leurs rendements accroissants et de leurs retombees positives. Les conditions et les caracteristiques des processus de communication expliquent le regroupement des innovations dans des espaces regionaux bien delimites. L'implantation dans des districts technologiques caracterises par des systemes de communication a plusieurs chaines, favorise l'acces a la connaissance externe, considere de nos jours comme un facteur intermediaire indispensable a la connaissance technologique, et encourage l'introduction des transformations technologiques localisees, ce qui entraine des mecanismes de renforcement autonomes bases sur des rendements accroissants localises. ANTONELLI C. (2000) Kollektive Wissensvermittlung und Innovation: Beweismaterial technologischer Gebiete, Reg. Studies 34 , 535-547. Technologisches Wissen ist ein Gemeingut insofern als seine Schaffung das Ergebnis eines Prozesses darstellt, in dem Einzelinformations- und Wissensbrocken zusammengefugt werden, dievon vielerlei Gruppen stammen und als solche gehandelt werden konnen. Dank niedriger Geschafts-und Kommunikationskosten konnen externe technologische Faktoren ihre Wirkungen angesichts zunehmendem Profits und positiver Ruckinformationen voll einsetzen. Die Bedingungen und Merkmale von Kommunikationsprozessen erklaren die Haufung von Innovationen in genau umschriebenen regionalen Raumen. Ortliche Begrenzung in technologischen Distrikten, die in Mehrfachkanalsystemen fur Kommunikation vorkommen, begunstigen den Zugang zu Aussenwissen, das jetzt in der Generation tcchnologischen Wissens als wesentlicher Vermittlungsaufwand angesehen wird, und fordert die Einfuhrung ortlich begrenzten technologischen Wandels, der zu einem sich selbst verstarkenden, ortlich begrenztem, auf zunehmendem Profit beruhenden Mechanismus fuhrt.Communication, Localized Technological Knowledge, Technological Districts,

This work elaborates the notion of localised technological knowledge, based upon the distinction between information, competence and knowledge, and analyses the emergence of the new knowledge industry. The evolution of the organisation of knowledge production is analysed through four stylised modes: scientific entrepreneurship, institutional variety, vertical integration and technological cooperation. The new trends towards the growth of knowledge-intensive business service industries are detected and underlined. They are considered as the outcome of the institutional formation of a market for knowledge based upon a process of increasing appropriability of localised knowledge based on: the blending of generic scientific information and competence and growing scope of applicability via computer-communication systems; deverticalisation of research activities from the boundaries of corporations; the specification of a demand for technological competence; and the specialising of independent firms in the production of technological competence and knowledge.

The extent to which firms can react creatively to rather than adjust passively against new techniques and practices is dependent on their command of technological knowledge and relative competence. This book explores the characteristics of the path dependent dynamics of localized technological change, demonstrating how the economics of complexity c