Abstract
Research on innovation systems and innovative milieux has shown that
the innovation process of companies is strongly interrelated with
activities of other firms and organizations. Internet is a new information
and communication technology that is assumed to have a big potential
to change such relationships and networks. An often held expectation
is that the Internet will allow firms to interact with distant partners
more easily and that, as a consequence, innovation networks become
independent from geographical space. A contrasting view argues that
local and regional networks and innovation systems will keep their
importance, due to the fact that tacit knowledge, face-to-face communication
and institutional factors are still of key relevance. Based on a
survey of Austrian firms we are going to investigate how the Internet
is changing innovation networks of companies with respect to new
types of partners and the spatial extension of the network.
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