Overcoming frictions in transnational knowledge flows: challenges of connecting, sense-making and integrating

Harald Bathelt, John Cantwell and Ram Mudambi

Journal of Economic Geography, 2018, vol. 18, issue 5, 1001-1022

Abstract: The increasing interconnection of local, trans-local and transnational knowledge networks is the outcome of the coevolution of (i) knowledge centers, typically city regions, (ii) epistemic communities that are grounded in and connect these regions and (iii) firms, usually multinational enterprises (MNEs). This interaction has created opportunities for innovation, but it is also impeded by a range of frictions that arise in the process of integrating locally embedded knowledge from geographically dispersed and culturally disparate regions across different countries. This article develops a simple model of how such frictions that MNEs encounter in their knowledge internationalization process can be overcome through ongoing processes of connecting, sense-making and integrating.

Keywords: Connecting; economic geography; integrating; international business studies; sense-making; transnational knowledge flows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D85 F21 F23 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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