Innovation and cognitive distance within a community of practice: an agent-based model

The development of New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) in particular brought considerable changes in the management of codified knowledge. Nevertheless, the management of such a capital quickly appears problematic. In fact, a great quantity of knowledge is not transmitted this way; it is rather diffused by means of social interactions. We focus here on communities of practice and wish to know what impact does the cognitive distance that may exist between different members of a community have on the process of knowledge creation. We use agent-based modelling and preliminary results show that the cognitive distance that may, or may not, exist between the different members of a community does not seem to have an impact on the process of knowledge creation.