Global and Local Knowledge: Global Transatlantic Public-Private Partnerships for Research and Technological Development

In an era of globalized and highly mobile financial capital, multinational corporations can essentially 'arbitrage' across national borders to find the best organizations to integrate into their mode of production. The increased velocity of commerce and competition demands multi-faceted expertise from a firm. Only through the judicious and experienced application of knowledge can firms hope to outperform their counterparts and achieve sustained competitive advantage. Strategic research partnerships involving government, university and industry participants serve as a focusing device to ensure that innovations can be generated by society with more efficiency and effectiveness.
Global/local networks coupling together different national innovation systems, and trans-nationally linking networks of knowledge producers, carriers and users, are becoming crucial components of the global, real and virtual, knowledge architectures and infrastructures. Global and Local Knowledge is a journey of insight and discovery in the emerging global 'knowledge village'. Perspectives from different parts of the world are presented to produce a new world view on how specialized knowledge can serve as the unit of reference for stocks and flows of a hybrid public/private, tacit/codified, tangible/virtual good that represents the building block of the knowledge economy.