Re-Designing Knowledge Production in the Post-COVID-19 Era. A Task-Based Approach

This paper seeks to single out what micro-level working activities may be more conducive of faster COVID-19 transmission. We do so from an innovation perspective, knowing that knowledge production has an important component rooted in tacit knowledge, whose sharing is heavily based on physical interaction. Specifically, we hypothesize that communication-intense working activities (including those needed to transfer tacit knowledge) may accelerate COVID-19 contagion, and must be re-designed with more urgency and attention than other working activities that apparently may look as dangerous, such as selling or training. We test this empirically employing data from 9 different sources relative to US Metropolitan Statistical Areas, and confirm our hypothesis, eventually elaborating policy and managerial implications for dealing with innovation (and beyond) during the pandemic.