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Learning in ‘Organized Anarchies’: The Nature of Technological Search Processes at Trade Fairs

Bathelt H. and Gibson R. Learning in ‘organized anarchies’: the nature of technological search processes at trade fairs, Regional Studies. Trade fairs have become an important temporary organizational form for the establishment of inter-firm linkages and networks. Despite recent insights into the nature of knowledge flows, the causal mechanisms linking trade fairs to processes of technological searches and choices remain underspecified. Taking this as a starting point, this paper provides a conceptual and empirical account of the technological search and related learning processes between geographically distant firms at trade fairs. Building on the concept of ‘organized anarchies’ and the ‘garbage-can model’ of organizational choice, it reconceptualizes the nature of search processes and applies this conceptualization to an explorative study of four business-to-business fairs in North America. This provides a dynamic explanation of how inter-firm interaction and observation support technological search processes, which may lead to distinct wider patterns of technological specialization and/or diffusion.