Abstract:

This paper discusses why social networks are a key factor in the transfer of knowledge between producers and users of knowledge, thus enabling the promotion of innovation and development, and explains the extent to which the Internet as a medium for open sourcing and content projects, provides a viable option for facilitating the creation or strengthening of those networks, particularly in contexts characterized by institutional path dependence and restrictive social capital. The concepts of knowledge management and transfer in the context of economies in the 21st century are considered, as well as the concepts of social capital, innovation and regional development. The role of social capital in providing networks for knowledge transfer, as well as how it can nevertheless function as a hindrance as well as a help , when the need to stimulate not only bonding but also bridging and linking is not taken into account, is explained with reference to the OCDE literature on this subject. This theoretical framework will then be grounded in a discussion of the results of ample local empirical research which show how the absence of information and knowledge management coupled with restrictive practices of social capital and institutional inertia, hinders policy initiatives and sustainable social and economic regional development. Finally, the opportunities that the internet offers for by passing the existence of organizational path dependence will be discussed with reference to the development of the first stage of a collaborative project, initiated by the author with a local business-education foundation and two regional universities and financed by the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology, to create a Web page based on the principles of open sourcing and content to facilitate the transfer of knowledge between sectors to encourage innovation and development.

Keywords:

Knowledge transfer, path dependence, open sourced e content, regional development.