Learn English – the meaning of “polarisation” in this paragraph

meaning-in-contextunderstanding

The implication is that the process of technical change, at the firm level, is generally
evolutionary. Firms that survive within the marketplace will move along a technical trajectory
accumulating resource commitments and expertise that is generally heterogeneous
in character. Knowledge is learnt actively, rather than gained from an exogenously defined
set of blueprints. Edith Penrose appeared to have this point in mind when she choose to
stress that a firm’s ability to compete successfully depended upon its resource base.
Resources may be built up over time but incur opportunity costs. Those costs include
an increasing polarisation of resources towards specific knowledge and expertise.
Such polarisation may be particularly problematic when new technology threatens to
disrupt established infrastructural and technical systems. With this in mind, Chesbrough
and Teece’s distinction between autonomous and systemic innovation is helpful..

I am writing an essay on MSc course, and I need to do a thorough analysis of the text. Basically, I struggle to understand the word polarisation and thus the whole meaning because of it. The dictionary does not help much as it refers to physics or either to two opposing groups of something.

How can I interpret "increasing polarisation of resources"?

P.S I did my BSc in technical discipline and God how I struggle to understand business people who write academic papers with the sole idea of making it to look cool with fancy words…

Best Answer

The dictionary defines polarization thus:

polarisation (Noun)

1 The production or condition of polarity, as:

a. A process or state in which rays of light exhibit different properties in different directions, especially the state in which all the vibration takes place in one plane.

b. The partial or complete polar separation of positive and negative electric charge in a nuclear, atomic, molecular, or chemical system.

2 A concentration, as of groups, forces, or interests, about two conflicting or contrasting positions.

In your sentence, the author is (mis)using the second meaning. The author is attempting to invoke the concentration part of the definition without also making use of the two conflicting or contrasting positions part of the definition.

Consequently the two following sentences are equivalent:

Those costs include an increasing polarisation of resources towards specific knowledge and expertise

Those costs include an increasing concentration of resources towards specific areas of knowledge and expertise.

In context, the author is commenting on the fact that resources (which in papers is often synonymous with money) being concentrated into certain small areas of special interest, instead of being spread thinly over the sector as a whole.

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