Spatial Mobility of Knowledge: Communicating Different Categories of Knowledge

Abstract

The recurring erroneous predictions about the impact of communication technologies on the spatial distribution and “mobility” of codified knowledge, and most deficits in research about knowledge spillovers (knowledge flows) and about knowledge sharing can be traced back to an oversimplification of the communication process between producers of knowledge and recipients of information, a missing distinction between knowledge and information, and insufficient categorization of the various types and grades of knowledge. This paper focuses primarily on the communication process between two individuals: a communicator and a recipient of information and is interested in the reasons why communication of knowledge may fail. An extended and more realistic communicator-recipient model is the cornerstone of any research about the “mobility of knowledge”. The author discusses assumptions leading to erroneous conclusions about the mobility of knowledge and then proposes a likely more adequate model of communication.