Chit-chat matters: work-related knowledge flows through informal inter-organizational ties

Industrial clusters are characterized by an intense actors interacting with the effect of sharing existing knowledge and creating new one. In this environment knowledge unevenly flows across organizational boundaries and a significant part is exchanged via informal channels. Despite some scholars argued that only general and low-value information can be shared through this kind of channels (Breschi & Lissoni, 2001), empirical research show that specific and critical knowledge diffuses through informal networks as well (Dahl & Pedersen, 2004). Indeed, informal ties between firms represent the fertile ground for the so-called 'information trade', according to which firms must give useful information in order to obtain it (Rogers, 1982). Von Hipple (1987) considers informal information trade between firms as an important form of cooperative R&D, likely to occur in industries where proprietary knowledge is critical for firms' success. Although such knowledge spillovers are recognized to be not a critical factor for firms' willingness to cluster (Krugman, 1991), they are an important form of knowledge transfer and their existence within clusters is undoubtedly linked to the one of informal networks. Scholars argue that formal ties among firms are important in explaining innovation exactly because they enable access to informal spillovers within a regional ecology (Owen-Smith & Powell, 2004, p. 9). This argument is motivated by the fact that a large portion of the knowledge exchanged across organizational borders is tacit in nature, which is informally transmitted by face-to-face interaction (Giuliani, 2010). It descends that informal inter-organizational networks represent interesting subjects of study for their pivotal role as conduits for information and knowledge diffusion. Although several studies recognize the importance of informal networks for the dissemination of knowledge, they mostly fail in assessing the extent to which inter-organizational informal ties represent conduits of work-related knowledge. The data belongs to an original dataset that we have built over time since the establishment of the ITC Pole of Abruzzo Region. First results highlight that a considerable part of informal ties represents conduits of work-related knowledge. The paper tries to contribute to the literature by emphasizing the importance of informal inter-organizational networks; when studying industrial clusters as knowledge ecosystems, informal ties among cluster actors do exist and a considerable part of those are exclusively devoted to share work-related knowledge.