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About

Nathalie Lazaric is a leading scholar in evolutionary and institutional economics, with a core focus on organizational learning, technological agreements, and the co-evolution of routines and technologies. Her most influential work, "Towards a characterization of assets and knowledge created in technological agreements" (2000, 97 citations), fundamentally reshaped how we understand inter-firm collaborations. Rather than viewing alliances merely as transactions, Lazaric demonstrated that their primary purpose is the creation of new competencies, introducing a cognitive framework to analyze the nature of knowledge bases—their tacitness, generality, and centralization—formed within these partnerships. This contribution has been pivotal for researchers studying innovation dynamics and knowledge governance. In her more recent work, "Learning a New Ecology of Space and Looking for New Routines" (2019, 15 citations), she extends this analysis to the micro-level, using a case study of robotic surgery to reveal how physical space and new technologies transform organizational routines. Lazaric’s research, spanning from the early evolution of robotics to contemporary surgical teams, consistently illuminates the messy, non-linear processes through which knowledge is created and embedded. Her work is essential reading for anyone interested in the cognitive foundations of innovation, organizational change, and the real-world interplay between technology and human practice.