It is hard to communicate ideas that are not totally clear to its owner. Explanations are complicated and may follow a non-linear logic until all aspects of the idea are connected together. Understanding of a scientific paper as complex as a Master Thesis, as it is the case here, is of course conditioned to how well theories are articulated to sustain the idea. And that is not where I am yet. Therefore, expect here some overlaps, some rolling back, and some fuzz, until the idea is more organized. This post is another attempt to show what the objective of my project is.
For the lack of connection on the specifics of the topic, I must write as the ideas emerged in my head, and will even support it with visual aid, that maybe will be clearer than my words – I’ve been criticized often about my complex writing style, and that it makes harder for the reader to get my ideas. In advance, I’m sorry for that. Anyway, until I find the best way to translate these thoughts to paper, I’ll be trying around here. It is nevertheless a good exercise to do so.
References:
DAVENPORT, Thomas; Prusak, Laurence (2000): Working Knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
DICKEN, Peter (2007): Global Shift: Mapping the changing contours of the world economy. 5th edition, Sage Publications, London-UK.
LUNDVALL, B.A.; Johnson, B. (1994): The Learning Economy. Journal of Industry Studies, Volume I, Number 2
innovation tool 
maio 27, 2009 às 14:32
Marcelo, this is a very nice blog! very informative. Concerning your answer, and if I understand it correctly I suposse the new technologies are the internet and the containers ships, besides other socieconomic factors, not only technologies. However, from the “geographical spread” it could also be argued that while for manufacturing the production has widespread, for many other industries, even more significant for the total economy there has been more concentration. Greetings from a MIKE alumnus!
maio 28, 2009 às 17:30
Hello Carlos! Thanks a lot for your visit and your comment! As I intend this to be a space for discussions, allow me to take it further.
Indeed the container shipping technology transformed the transportation of goods and made it easier, faster, and cheaper. Also, the commercial airlines did for people transportation what container shipping did for goods. The internet is responsible for information transfer which allowed control and management from great distances. However, I want to identify what technologies and tools (most likely internet-based) allowed the transfer of knowledge aiming at innovation developments.
Secondly, I’d like to ask you for the sources of “for many other industries, …, there has been more concentration”. Could you tell me what authors show that?
Thanks a lot and come often!
junho 4, 2009 às 10:51
Dear Marcelo, you’re saying that there has been a “geographical widespread of the production systems”. I agree with you that this has happened with manufacturing, but I don’t know if this has happened with the rest of production and I’m not sure that the authors you’re quoting are saying that neither. If you look at the biggest companies in the world http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2008/full_list/ or you can see these maps too Economic Activity in a Spiky World (the other maps about the Spike World are also interesting) http://creativeclass.com/whos_your_city/maps/#Economic_Activity_in_a_Spiky_World . We can discuss their methodology, but I doesn’t seem that there has been such a “geographical widespread”. China has raised in the last 20 years as a production superpower, but again I’m not sure if this represents a geographical widespread per se.