Knowledge is not “something in the air” and that a stronger integration within the regional community life does not automatically lead to higher innovative performance. The transfer of knowledge is something more complex and costly, because tacit knowledge does not freely spill over within a district. For this reason, specific efforts are needed to benefit from external sources of knowledge, especially in an innovative milieu. Furthermore, actors seem to require such specific resources more in formal oriented types of interaction, such as R&D cooperation, than in informal interactions. Probably, in a more dynamic perspective, social capital may foster innovative performance because of its importance as a premise of formal cooperation interactions.
It is not always beneficial to enlarge social networks with the justification that they enhance innovation.
Jena Economic Research Papers
Networks and innovation: the role of social assets in explaining firms´ innovative capacity
by Uwe Cantner, Elisa Conti, Andreas Meder
(2009)
http://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/jportal_derivate_00171879/wp_2009_040.pdf
Being an open firm with a high level of social capital does not present a significant positive correlation with innovative capacity. Hence, attending business networks events, having deeper contacts with the IHK or with local development agencies does not increase, ceteris paribus, the likelihood of innovating. On the other hand, when the interaction consists of more formal collaborations for implementing co-innovation, the results are strongly significant.
These findings are evidence of the fact that knowledge is not “something in the air” and that a stronger integration within the regional community life does not automatically lead to higher innovative performance. The transfer of knowledge is something more complex and costly, because tacit knowledge does not freely spill over within a district. For this reason, specific efforts are needed to benefit from external sources of knowledge, especially in an innovative milieu such as the Jena region. Furthermore, actors seem to require such specific resources more in formal oriented types of interaction, such as R&D cooperation, than in informal interactions. Probably, in a more dynamic perspective, social capital may foster innovative performance because of its importance as a premise of formal cooperation interactions.
Even more significant are the findings on the extent of the network of co-innovators. The positive returns in terms of innovative capacity decrease with an increase in the number of partners, due to a diminishing degree of novelty of information and a growing complexity in selecting and managing what is relevant and productive. This implies that it is not always beneficial to enlarge social networks with the justification that they enhance innovation.