Knowledge Will Always Get through: Inventors, International Networks, and Flows of Technological Knowledge between Britain and the United States in the Interwar Deglobalization Period

Abstract Researchers have highlighted that institutional contexts affect the transnational diffusion of knowledge. However, the influence of institutions on the flow of knowledge through cross‐national networks remains under‐theorized, limiting our understanding of the dynamics of knowledge creation and the factors that may hinder it. Drawing on data from over 8000 US patents granted to British inventions, alongside a case study of a network of inventors and scientists, this research examines how the interwar phase of deglobalization affected the international diffusion of technological knowledge. The analysis shows that interwar nationalistic states' efforts constrained, rather than fully halted, the cross‐border flow of knowledge within networks. Deglobalization particularly hindered the diffusion of tacit knowledge, which depends on personal interaction, whereas codified knowledge in patents and scientific publications continued to circulate more easily. These findings have contemporary relevance and suggest that, despite policymakers' efforts to reverse globalization through protectionist policies, tacit and codified knowledge is likely to continue crossing national borders through the networks of inventors and scientists.