Absorptive Capability and Knowledge Tacitness in the Transfer of Knowledge in the Agrifood Cluster of the Southeast of Spain

The OECD (1997) conceives a national innovation system (NIS) as “technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions are key to the innovative process” (p. 7). Innovation is conceived as the result of complex set of relationships among actors in the system, which includes companies, universities and research centres. In actual knowledge-based economies, industry-links are essential for economic development and progress (Ahrweiler et al., 2011). They are essential for building up networks of relationships that are necessary for any firm to innovate (Freeman 1987, 1992). In particular, many influential studies have identified the links between firm innovation and competitive advantage at the national level (Porter, 1990). Lundvall (1992) describes characteristics of NIS, emphasizing the importance or learning and how small countries, with limited public budgets and few large corporations, have selected areas of innovation strength and are able to absorb knowledge and innovations from elsewhere (Cooke et al., 1997). Thus, the vision of a NSI is just beyond the technological advances, “but is more broadly on the factors influencing national technological capabilities” (Nelson & Rosenberg, 1993: 4).