Knowledge networks in the Dutch aviation industry: the proximity paradox

The importance of geographical proximity for interaction and knowledge sharing has discussed extensively in recent years. There is increasing consensus that proximity is just one out of many types of proximities that might be. We argue that proximity may be a crucial driver for agents to connect and knowledge, but too much proximity between agents on any of the dimensions harm their innovative performance at the same time. In a study on knowledge in the Dutch aviation industry, we test this so-called proximity paradox. We found evidence that the proximity paradox holds to a considerable. Our study clearly showed that cognitive, social, organizational and geographical were crucial for explaining the knowledge network of the Dutch aviation. However, we found strong evidence that too much cognitive proximity lowered ’ innovative performance, and organizational proximity did not have an effect.