TY - JOUR

T1 - Stretching tacit knowledge beyond a local fix? Global spaces of learning in advertising professional service firms.

AU - Faulconbridge, James R.

N1 - This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic Geography following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version was published in the Journal of Economic Geography 2006 Volume 6 (4) pp. 517-540 and is available online at: http://joeg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/6/4/517

PY - 2006/4/21

Y1 - 2006/4/21

N2 - The �knowledge economy� is now widely debated and economic geographers have made a significant contribution to understanding of the influences upon the production and dissemination of tacit knowledge within and between firms. However, the continued association of tacit knowledge with practices rooted at the local scale and suggestions of territorially sticky knowledges has proven controversial. Through examination of empirical material exploring the stretching of learning in advertising professional service firms, the paper argues that we need to recognise the use of two different epistemologies of organizational knowledge leverage - �knowledge transfer� in the form of best practice and �the social production of new knowledge� - and their complementary yet differentiated roles in organizations and differing spatial reaches. This highlights the existence of multiple geographies of tacit knowledge and the need to be more subtle in our arguments about its geographies. In particular, the paper reveals that tacit knowledge can have global geographies when knowledge management practices focus on reproducing rather than transferring knowledge across space.

AB - The �knowledge economy� is now widely debated and economic geographers have made a significant contribution to understanding of the influences upon the production and dissemination of tacit knowledge within and between firms. However, the continued association of tacit knowledge with practices rooted at the local scale and suggestions of territorially sticky knowledges has proven controversial. Through examination of empirical material exploring the stretching of learning in advertising professional service firms, the paper argues that we need to recognise the use of two different epistemologies of organizational knowledge leverage - �knowledge transfer� in the form of best practice and �the social production of new knowledge� - and their complementary yet differentiated roles in organizations and differing spatial reaches. This highlights the existence of multiple geographies of tacit knowledge and the need to be more subtle in our arguments about its geographies. In particular, the paper reveals that tacit knowledge can have global geographies when knowledge management practices focus on reproducing rather than transferring knowledge across space.

KW - knowledge

KW - professional service firms

KW - advertising

KW - globalization.

U2 - 10.1093/jeg/lbi023

DO - 10.1093/jeg/lbi023

M3 - Journal article

VL - 6

SP - 517

EP - 540

JO - Journal of Economic Geography

JF - Journal of Economic Geography

SN - 1468-2710

IS - 4

ER -