Diversity, knowledge and complexity theory: some introductory issues

Abstract

This paper will discuss some introductory issues related to the role and importance of microdiversity of agents in the context of business networks. Traditional views emphasise the importance of connectivity in the making of industrial clusters, but neglect the crucial role of microdiversity. Microdiversity is important to achieve adaptive behaviour in the presence of environmental uncertainty. Diversity acts as a reservoir of potential strategies against unpredictable environments. Secondly, the formation of business networks is explained in terms of mechanisms generating diversity. Networks emerge as the organisational form in which the diversity of agents can self-organise. This paper suggests that the issue of diversity can be used to discriminate between the model of organisation based on rational allocation of resources — the firm — and the model of organisation based on emergence and self-organisation — the network. The paper concludes that the former is a diversity-reducing mechanism, whereas the latter is a diversity-enhancing mechanism.