Complexity and the coordination of technological knowledge: The case of innovation platforms

The chapter integrates insights from complexity theory into the economics of technological knowledge in order to reflect systematically on the variety of forms and processes that underpin knowledge production, dissemination and coordination. In so doing the chapter brings together two complementary bodies of scholarly research: the analysis of multiple interactions occurring within network-type structures which is typical of the literature on complex dynamic systems; on the other hand the study of learning processes as intentional, mindful and purposive behaviors set in motion by myopic agents, which is at heart of the economics of innovation. We draw from complexity theory for what concerns the formalization of structured interactions and the emergence of networks as spontaneous processes: at the same time we emphasise the intentional nature of those interactions aimed at sourcing external knowledge and competences and integrate in the repertoire of internal ones. In this view actors possess limited resources and knowledge, and their ability to innovate is contingent to the implementation of selective interactions by means of research, development and learning processes.