Managing Network Economies: The Competitive Advantage of Commons as Ecosystems of Innovation

Among the serious concerns raised by the socioeconomic development of the twenty-first century is the question of how regional development, especially in economically weak areas, can be supported in such a way as to bring about flexibility and innovation, matters causally associated with the long-term viability and evolution of living systems. This contribution employs research results derived from the management of common-pool resources (commons) to reconstruct the ways and means by which knowledge in robust and enduring organizations of commons may support the regional development of ecosystems of innovation, that is, systems of distributed knowledge featuring polycentric administration and decision mechanisms that mutually facilitate flexible and innovative solutions. All these matters are addressed by the application of the language-information-reality (LIR) framework and its extensions. The use of this framework of analysis helps to broaden awareness and understand where common sense is a synergistic consideration, and where an enhancement of our background knowledge is necessary.