danish research unit for industrial dynamics druid working paper no ...

TOWARDS A CHARACTERISATION OF ASSETS AND KNOWLEDGECREATEDIN TECHNOLOGICAL AGREEMENTS:Some evidence from the automobile-robotics sector 1 .Nathalie LAZARIC (University of Compiègne, France)And Luigi MARENGO (University of Trento, Italy)AbstractThis paper tries to bring new insights on the dynamics of inter-firm by focusing oncognitive and organisational dimensions. We consider the knowledge bases created insidethe agreement and the characteristics of such knowledge bases (such as tacitness, level ofgenerality, degree of centralisation...). The nature of assets for supporting this creation isalso essential for the redeployability of knowledge created. We began by a brief review ofsome problems encountered by transactions cost economics and present some case studiesof agreements between firms in the automobile and robotics sector. After having presenteda taxonomy of knowledge and assets involved in such agreements, we bring some newdiscussion on the exploration/exploitation's dilemma. We argue finally that our taxonomymay be fruitful for a better understanding of the dynamic of firm boudaries by trying to godeeper into the "black box" of agreements.KeywordsInter-firm relations, automobile industry, technological agreementsJEL ClassificationD23, O32, L62ISBN (87-7873-027-9)1 A first version of this text was presented at EAEPE conference in Antwerp in Belgium ( 7- 9 November).Many thanks for useful comments from J. Niosi, B. Loasby, P. Saviotti and A. Narduzzo among others.