TIPIK
Title
Technology and Infrastructures Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy (TIPIK)
Coordinator
Franco Malerba
Keywords
tacit knowledge
innovation
codification of knowledge
Research outline and main results
The research has studied the extent and the impact of the tendency towards codification of knowledge, i.e. with the ongoing process of reduction and conversion of knowledge into information which has taken place in a number of industries throughout the most developed countries.
The coordination task was carried on by BETA (Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, Université Louis-Pasteur, Strasbourg); other participants were IMRI (Institut pour le Management de la Recherche et de l'Innovation, Université Paris Dauphine), ISI (Institut für Systemtechnik und Innovationsforschung, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Karlsruhe) and SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Brighton).
CESPRI's contribution has assessed the knowledge management practices within the three top machine tool industries in Italy, namely: textile machinery, metalworking machine tools, and plastic-processing machinery.
In particular, it has focused on three key micro-sectors wherein firms located within the province of Brescia (East Lombardy) holds a clear national or international leadership:
- hosiery machinery
- metal moulding presses
- moulding presses for thermoplastics.
As many other sectors within East Lombardy, these are characterised by the dominance of small and medium enterprises, as well as a blend of historical links with local users (often organised in "industrial districts", as it is the case for hosiery producers) and aggressive export-orientation. Tacit knowledge has often been identified as the key resource of small machinery producers, and at a first glance firms within the above-mentioned micro-sectors do not fail to confirm this belief. In fact, within these sectors as well as in other Italian mechanical industries, intense social and even family relationships (among producers as well as between users and producers) have often been identified as the key vehicle for both commercial information and technical expertise transfer and building. CESPRI's research aimed at checking whether this common belief had a sound empirical ground, especially after the most recent waves of technical change within the sector. Mixed qualitative/quantitative interviews have been the key tool of the research. In particular, they addressed the role of so-called "test customers" within the hosiery machinery industry, as well as the educational attainments and inter-firm mobility of engineers and other technicians within the metal moulding presses and moulding presses for thermoplastics industries
Last updated April 21, 2009
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