Multimedia networks, globalization and strategies of innovation: the case of the silicon alley. Globalisierung, Multimedia-Netzwerke und Innovationsstrategien: Der Fall Silicon Alley

The report offers a sociological portrait of the structure and dynamics of 'Silicon Alley', an industry cluster of about a thousand new media firms that has emerged since the early 1990s. Situated in the context of New York's development as a global city, Silicon Alley is part of the rise of advanced producer serivces and the dramatic growth of information and communications technology in an increasingly transnational economy. In analyzing the nature and importance of inter-firm networks among multimedia corporations, technical networks (e.g., the Internet) are distinguished from social networks as well as socio-technical networks (social ties emerging from or strategically produced by techno-social linkages such as web site visits or virtual communities). The content of inter-firm ties is associated with the interactive and negotiated quality of creative work relations in contemporary business services and knowledge-intensive service networks, mediated by advanced information technology. The cooperative competition and interpenetration between old media and new media firms are discussed. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the relevance of the non-institutional characteristics of social networks for strategies of organizational innovation. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 5071(136) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman