Third party roles of brokers in temporary knowledge networks

Abstract

Agriculture extension advisors play key roles as intermediaries, or brokers, within temporary knowledge networks including within Australia’s agriculture innovation system which is generally referred to as research, development and extension (RD&E). The purpose of this paper is to provide differing insights into the intermediation roles of public and private agriculture advisers in RD&E projects. This paper draws on empirical research based on a mixed methods case study that included social network analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that the roles of private advisers cannot be substituted with those of public advisers for a range of reasons..