This article provides empirical tests of the hypothesis of ‘optimal cognitive distance’, proposed by Nooteboom (1999, 2000), in two distinct empirical settings. Variety of cognition, needed for learning, has two dimensions: the number of agents with different cognition, and differences in...

This paper analyses how organizational routines change. It focuses on the level of learning groups within organizations. The paper starts with a summary of the 'activity theory' of knowledge used. Next, the notion of scripts is used, to analyse organizational groups as 'systems of distributed...

This article connects theory of learning with theory of governance, in the context of inter-firm relations. It recognizes fundamental criticism of transaction cost economics (TCE), but preserves elements from that theory. Two kinds of relational risk are identified: hold-up and spillover risk....

Increasingly, it has been recognised that in their process of internationalisation multinationals may learn. They may take a strategy not only of exploitation, to leverage existing assets, competencies and products, built up in their home countries, but also, and perhaps even primarily, of...

In an attempt at a systematic theory of entrepreneurship, this paper connects various literatures, from economics and business. In economics, there are many notions of entrepreneurship, some of which seem to contradict each other. For example, there are notions of entrepreneurship as an...

This chapter offers a theory and method for the analysis of the dynamics, i.e. the development, of clusters for innovation. It employs an analysis of three types of embedding: institutional embedding, which is often localized, structural embedding (network structure), and relational embedding...

Die Öffnung der Märkte innerhalb wie auch außerhalb Europas bietet Unternehmenimmer weitreichendere Handlungsspielräume für internationale Aktivitäten.Auch die Unternehmen in Deutschland nutzen diese Chance und engagieren sichin zunehmendem Maße auf ausländischen Märkten. Das Phänomen...

Deutschlandweit steht nach Schätzungen des IfM Bonn in rund 71.000 Familienunternehmenpro Jahr die Regelung der Nachfolge an. Etwa 8.500 Familienunternehmenin Ostdeutschland sind davon jährlich betroffen (vgl. FREUND2004). Auf den Freistaat Sachsen entfallen nach Schätzungen zwischen 1.700und...