Knowledge bases, local-global learning and the transformation of the

Jubilee Fund of the City of Vienna for the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration

The project investigates the role of knowledge bases and knowledge flows for innovation in the medical devices sector in Vienna. It studies how companies acquire external knowledge, and through which channels, over time. Using a synthetic-analytic-symbolic (SAS) approach to knowledge bases, the research presented explores the relationships between different features of knowledge (such as type, organisations of origin, degree of novelty, and skills involved) and the spatial scales of interaction (regional, national and international) for its creation and acquisition. Knowledge bases are connected to one another via diverse actors, products and systems, and their translation into innovation and firm growth requires specific structures and agency that differ across (sub-)sectors, organisations and local contexts. Based on these concepts knowledge interactions and innovation in the medical devices sector in Vienna are investigated.