This book provides a unique set of empirical and theoretical analyses on the conditions, determinants and effects of the exchange and trade of technological knowledge. This work delivered by the research team lead by Bernard Guilhon shows that technological knowledge is more and more traded and exchanged in the market place. When and where contractual interactions are implemented by an institutional set-up which makes_the exchange better reliable for both parties. The new evidence provided by the book moreover makes it possible to appreciate the positive role of major knowledge rent externalities provided by the new quasi-markets for technological knowledge. Trade in technological knowledge leads in fact, as the book shows, to higher levels of division of labor, specialization and efficiency in the production and distribution of new technological knowledge. This dynamics is considered a part of a broader process where the generation of technological knowledge is itself becoming closer to the production of goods so that the division of labour among learning organization plays a growing role. Exchange of technological knowledge takes part because the conditions for appropriability are now far better that currently assumed by a large traditional literature. The analysis carried out through the book builds upon the notion of localized technological knowledge and suggests that the exchange of technological knowledge is not a spontaneous 'atmospheric' process.
The purpose of "Technology and Markets for Knowledge" is to reconcile two terms that the economic tradition has opposed for a long time: the market and knowledge. The editor and contributors focus on the transformations that affect the processes of creation, accumulation, and exchange of scientific, technological, and commercial knowledge by organizations. The first part of this book analyzes knowledge markets basis. The first three chapters rely on the idea that knowledge is the organization's fundamental capital. Technological and scientific knowledge is becoming more fragmented. Pieces of knowledge may be articulated due to sophisticated R&D technologies.Markets for knowledge solely concern individual knowledge units which form the knowledge base of the firm. These knowledge units are capitalizable and adaptable to different contexts. The second part of this book extends these developments by providing sectoral illustrations (Chemistry, Bio-pharmaceuticals, Semiconductors, and Software).
Firms are focusing on their own competencies, which entails an increasing externalization of some tasks, even the more complex ones for which the recourse to an external business service is legitimated by competencies-related motivations, economies of scale, and economies of scope. These knowledge providers allow firms to improve the efficiency of their innovative and productive activities. Consequently, the role of markets for knowledge is analyzed both with respect to the decomposition of the productive processes and the disintegration of the innovative ones.
