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This volume presents a comprehensive assessment of the economic effects of the emerging information and communication technologies associated with a knowledge-based economy, and looks at how knowledge is increasingly treated as a product in its own right. An original framework is developed to comprehend these fundamental shifts, based on three bodies of knowledge: * the economics of path dependence and of historical time as they are elaborated in the economics of new technologies * economic topology based on the methodology of network analysis * the new economics of knowledge and the concept o

The concept of localized technological change is emerging at the crossroads of different approaches to the economics of innovation and new technologies. The term `localized technological change' refers to the introduction of technological changes which make possible an increase in total factor productivity within only a limited range of techniques defined by the levels of factor intensity. This contrasts with `generalized technological change', which is defined as the global shift of all the techniques represented on the map of isoquants of the neoclassical tradition. The Economics of Localized Technological Change elaborates the notion of localized technology with respect to firms, factor substitution, sectors, regions and techniques. It also assesses the implications for industrial policy, technology and innovation policy. The book will be of interest to corporate policy makers, scholars of industrial organization and economics of innovation as well as business school students

1 — A New Industrial Organization Approach -- 1.1. Introduction -- 1.2. Production Functions and Governance Functions -- 1.3. The Effects of Telematics on the Governance Function -- 1.4. Telematics and Alternative Modes of Governance -- 2 — The Emergence of the Network Firm -- 2.1. The Adoption of Telematics -- 2.2. The Uses of Telematics -- 2.3. The Network Firm -- 2.4. A Generalization -- 3 — Manufacturing Networks: Telematics in the Automotive Industry -- 3.1. From Mass Production to Flexible Production -- 3.2. The Fiat Group Case -- 3.3. Telematics in the Logistic Function -- 3.4. Telematics in the Engineering and Production Planning Functions -- 4 — Networks Between Manufacturing and Demand: Cases From Textile and Clothing Industries -- 4.1. Manufacturing Flexibility and Interaction with Consumers -- 4.2. Manufacturing Networks and Market Networks: The Benetton Case -- 4.3. Internationalization of Technological Assets and Demand Monitoring: The Miroglio Case -- 4.4. Shrinking Idle Times, Decreasing Working Capital and Growing Flexibility: The GFT Case -- 4.5. Problems and Perspectives -- 5 — Area Networks: Telematic Connections in a Traditional Textile District -- 5.1. The Role of Telematics in Industrial Districts -- 5.2. Telematic Experiments in the Prato District -- 5.3. Problems and Perspectives -- 6 — Interorganizational Networks and Market Structures -- 6.1. The Interorganizational Networks -- 6.2. The Impact of Telematics on Competitive Strategies and Market Structures -- 6.3. The Econornic Role of Standards -- 6.4. Voluntary versus Compulsory Standards -- 7 — Supply Conditions of Telematic Network Services and Public Policy Implications -- 7.1. Technological and Supply Push versus Demand Pull in Telematic Diffusion -- 7.2. Information Quality, Supply Conditions and Demand Factors in Telematic Diffusion: A Matrix -- 7.3. Technological Factors -- 7.4. Institutional Context, Telecornmunication Supply and Marketing Factors -- 7.5. The Structure of Value Added Network and Services in Some Industrial Countries: The Italian Paradox -- 7.6. Conclusions and Policy Implications.

The analysis of the main features of knowledge, in terms of domain, characteristics and processes makes it possible to trace significant shifts in the economics of knowledge. Changing emphasis about the role of knowledge appropriability, divisibility and tradability has provided different solutions to the knowledge trade-off. Three different and rival concepts of technological knowledge can be identified: (a) knowledge as a public good, (b) knowledge as a proprietary good, (c) knowledge as a localized, collective and complex, path dependent activity. Such a shift has relevant implications in terms of governance mechanisms, strategic attitude of agents and public policy making.