Business Visits and the Quest for External Knowledge

This paper analyses the role of face-to-face interactions between employees of different firms meeting during work-related visits in fostering skills and generating new productive knowledge. The analysis is based on primary data collected from 1,982 business visitors to/from Australia. The results suggest that face-to-face interacting can be an effective mechanism to enhance skill formation, as it improves the stock of useful knowledge and offers opportunities to learning to both visiting and visited parties.