Factors shaping the international knowledge connectivity of industrial clusters: a comparative study of two Latin American cases

Abstract

Recent research has emphasized that success of industrial clusters is not only driven by intra-cluster knowledge sharing (‘local buzz’) but also by externally sourced knowledge (‘global knowledge pipelines’). This article examines the factors that determine the channels through which clusters connect with global knowledge pipelines depending on the structure of the global value chain within which they are inserted, their knowledge base and their stage of evolution. Building on a comparative case study of the salmon farming cluster in Chile and the software cluster in Costa Rica, we adopt an evolutionary perspective based on historical analysis to better understand how the configuration of clusters’ international knowledge linkages shifts over time. Our findings suggest that (i) the more hierarchical the global value chain structure, the less room for knowledge co-creation between local and foreign actors; (ii) clusters relying on analytical knowledge bases opt for more formal and coordinated links with high involvement of public actors, whereas in clusters relying on synthetic knowledge bases, international knowledge interaction is based on less formal links mainly between business actors; and (iii) as clusters evolve the channels through which they connect with foreign knowledge increase in number and new ‘hybrid’ varieties develop.     

Patterns of technological learning within the knowledge systems of industrial clusters in emerging economies: Evidence from China

Through an interview-based exploratory study and a follow-up survey-based quantitative analysis, this paper investigates the technological learning pattern in terms of structure and mechanisms of interaction within the knowledge system of two industrial clusters in China. Unlike the recent studies that suggest that industrial cluster comprises disconnected leader-centered communities, we argue that the different leader-centered communities within the knowledge systems of industrial clusters are not disconnected from each other. Instead, those communities are inter-connected through the so-called ‘knowledge spanning mechanisms’. Regarding the interaction dimension of technological learning pattern, this paper argues that in analyzing learning behavior in the knowledge networks of industrial clusters, it is necessary to synthesize the learning opportunity perspective and the absorptive capacity perspective to better understand and explain the similarities and dissimilarities in technological learning behavior among different cluster types, across cognitive subgroups, and between product innovation and process innovation. Our study reveals that in the context of emerging countries, the following four factors are decisive for technological learning opportunities inside the knowledge networks of industrial clusters: the underlying complexity of technology in clusters, the inter-connectedness between product and process, path dependency in knowledge searching, and the incremental nature of a cluster’s technological development.     

Building Innovation Excellence of World Class: The Cluster as an Instrument of Spatial Governance in the European Union

European spatial governance is becoming an intriguing mix of ideas from the economic, political and cultural spheres. This article asserts that, in the EU's spatial planning, the cluster is increasingly part of a hybrid spatial politics, here named the ‘cluster gaze’, based on the interplay of innovation‐oriented political rationality and spatial governance. To study this process, the article provides an empirical investigation into selected EU documentation. The investigation is based on two perspectives. First, the cluster is analysed as a mediating instrument to stimulate and rescale transnational market developments in the EU. Second, the cluster is studied as an instrument of spatial management — one that builds on a business managerial ethos and endorses a specific hierarchical spatial imaginary and a cluster evidence base to assess the productivity and efficiency of European clusters. Both of these perspectives pave the way for a European ‘politics of cluster excellence’ that is about the constant sharpening of cluster practices, continuous evaluation and ranking, and the enhancement of cluster performance to rise from the ‘European league’ towards the ‘world class’.     

Collective learning in clusters: Mechanisms and biases

Although collective learning has long been considered a core feature of successful clusters, many researchers have treated the concept of learning more as a metaphor than a construct that requires an understanding of the various processes and mechanisms involved. I draw on the cultural-evolutionary perspective to argue that learning in clusters is an inherently biased process, with outcomes that can be both functional and dysfunctional. The cultural-evolutionary approach views learning as a process of imitation, treats beliefs as the unit of selection, and considers individuals as agents who are limited in their cognitive capabilities and social autonomy. Using interview data on 62 small business owners and 34 institutional actors in a textile and a surgical instruments cluster in South-west Germany, I show that the learning process can involve social biases which, in these cases, have the effect of reproducing a collective mindset built on distrust and rivalry. The findings provide an explanation for the fact that many studies of clusters have not been able to document the high levels of interfirm collaboration that cluster theory predicts.     

Space-related antecedents of social capital: some empirical inquiries about the creation of new firms

This paper analyzes the spatial aspects of social capital creation between co-localised start-ups and customers, aiming to explain the factors which may influence the diffusion of inter-organizational social networks inside industrial clusters. We suppose that local social capital is not a public good, but its creation depends both on proximity. between actors and on a sense of affiliation of an entrepreneur to the cluster. While the embeddedness of a start-up inside a cluster has a positive influence on the relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital, it negatively influences the structural dimension. Implications and future lines of research are discussed.     

集体效率、全球价值链与簇群的升级战略——大新镇五金簇群和陈埭镇鞋业簇群的案例研究及启示

本文选择了两个典型的内资主导、外销导向的簇群——张家港市大新镇五金簇群和晋江市陈埭镇鞋业簇群,采取半结构式的访谈和问卷方法,探测性研究了两簇群的集体效率、全球价值链的控制关系、升级战略,以及全球价值链与簇群升级战略之间的相互关系。研究表明,两簇群都明显处于买方驱动的价值链之中,两簇群中的企业更多地采取流程升级和产品改进性升级;但在国内市场中,两簇群中的领导企业采取品牌战略的功能升级。另外,当地政府、商会和博览会对促进簇群的竞争力和帮助簇群升级起到了重要作用。最后,文章就簇群自身升级和政府、商会对簇群升级以及企业自身升级,提出了具体的对策思考。     

The Limits to Artist‐Led Regeneration: Creative Brownfields in the Cities of High Culture

Despite the burgeoning literature on creative cities, seldom explored is the context of cities rich in cultural capital but more orthodox in their approach to preserving the autonomy of culture. This article discusses the status of artistic spaces occupying abandoned industrial premises (‘creative brownfields') in historic cities that traditionally shape their policies around prestigious cultural institutions (‘cities of high culture'). Based on comparative insights from St Petersburg and Lausanne, the article explores the relations and tensions between mainstream cultural governance and creative brownfields. While there is no lack of creative brownfields in these cities, their wider urban impact is found to be marginal; moreover, these sites represent dispersed instances of temporary occupations rather than situated clusters of creative actors. More than coincidental, this (lack of) spatialization is argued to result from a particular governmentality—that of high culture—which disregards, rather than promotes, spaces of alternative cultural governance. The article conceptualizes creative brownfields in cities of high culture as the ‘soft infrastructure' of cultural production, in contrast with those in ‘creative cities' as the ‘hard infrastructure' of urban production. The article also calls for a recognition of the local context of regulation and accumulation in understanding the cultural/urban interplay.     

Dynamics of Inventor Networks and the Evolution of Technology Clusters

Clusters are important drivers of regional economic growth. Although their benefits are well recognized, research into their evolution is still ongoing. Most real‐world clusters seem to have emerged spontaneously without deliberate policy interventions, each cluster having its own evolutionary path. Since there is a significant gap in our understanding of the forces driving their evolution, this study uses a quantitative approach to investigate the role of inventor collaboration networks in it. Inventor collaboration networks for 30 top‐performing American metropolitan clusters were constructed on the basis of patent co‐authorship data. The selected clusters operate in hi‐tech fields: information technology, communications equipment and the biopharmaceutical industry. Starting from a widely accepted hypothesis that the ‘small‐world’ structure is an optimal one for knowledge spillovers and promotes innovation effectively, the authors statistically tested the impact of ‘small‐world’ network properties on cluster innovation performance proxied by patent output. The results suggest that the effect of the small‐world structure is not as significant as theorists hypothesized, not all clusters benefit from the presence of inventor collaboration networks, and cluster performance can be affected by policy interventions. Our analyses also suggest that cluster typology moderates the impact of inventor network properties on cluster innovation performance.     

The diffusion of exporting in Brazilian industrial clusters

The present research aimed at understanding the process by which firms in a cluster start to export based on systemic interactions, and the process of diffusion of exporting as a business strategy within the cluster. Diffusion was defined, following Rogers’ (1995: 5) seminal work, as ‘the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system’. The research method used was industry case studies and the unit of analysis selected was the cluster. Two manufacturing industries were chosen to be investigated, and within each geographic area clusters were identified as the origin of dynamic export growth in the industry. Players in each industrial cluster, as well as other significant actors, were interviewed. Extensive secondary data research was done to study clusters’ historical development. Detailed analysis and a comparison of the experiences permitted the extraction of some general conclusions concerning the similarities and differences between the clusters in terms of the adoption and diffusion of exporting. Results showed that the diffusion of exporting in an industrial cluster is quite similar to the dissemination of technical innovation. Social ties were important to facilitate the diffusion of exporting in one of the clusters studied. Also, the role of domestically-owned flagship firms in leading the internationalization process proved to be important in only one of the clusters, while the role of external actors was fully supported in the two industries studied. Finally, a number of support institutions, private and public, interfered in different stages of the internationalization process. In both industries, the federal government had only a late and limited impact on export initiation and development.     

我国软件产业集群治理问题研究

利用集群模式发展软件产业成为世界各国的通行做法。软件产业集群有四种典型治理模式,并且治理模式随集群发展也在不断演进。针对我国软件产业集群治理中存在的问题,应当进行集群整合,优化治理模式,强化内部合作机制,提升服务层次,从而增强集群治理的有效性。     

Rejuvenating clusters with ‘sleeping anchors’: The case of nanoclusters

This article investigates how competition for network orchestration sustains high tech clusters rejuvenation by avoiding early lock-in and stimulating exploration. Based on evidences drawn from the comparison of the evolution of two nano-electronics clusters, i.e., Grenoble (France) and Catania (Italy) clusters that share the same anchor tenant firm, namely STMicroelectronics, this article infers that cluster rejuvenation comes from scientific and technological diversity, competition for orchestration, overlap amongst networks and the ability of sleeping anchor tenant organizations to renew actors and technologies. As soon as the process of specialization (asset specificity, network specificity and technology speciation) starts, competition for orchestration stimulates sleeping anchor tenant organizations to influence research avenues within the cluster, and shape new networks within and outside the cluster.     

Real Geographies,Real Economies and Soft Spatial Imaginaries: Creating a ‘More than Manchester’ Region

This article develops a framework for analysing region‐building processes as spatiotemporal constructs, involving competing spatial imaginaries and attempts at consolidating these through institution building. Central here is the performative role of what we refer to as ‘soft space imaginaries’ in the ‘phased’ building of regions for planning and economic development over time. We demonstrate how this understanding can be used to examine the phased enactment of successive waves of region‐building by tracing the evolution of multiple soft spatial imaginaries in north‐west England. The analysis exposes the variable logics, alliances of actors, and tactics used to build momentum and secure legitimacy around preferred imaginaries which advocates often promoted on the grounds that they somehow reflected ‘real geographies’ or ‘real economies’. In this context, soft space imaginaries are seen to play an integral role in intellectual case making about the contemporaneous form and purpose of subnational governance. Yet our analysis also exposes the durability of past soft space imaginaries and their continued impact on efforts to build new soft spaces. What emerges is an understanding of soft space imaginaries as more than just superficial representations. They can help determine where government investment is channelled and into what kinds of policies.     

Developing a global leadership perspective through the use of student‐created reusable learning objects

Study abroad programs have been identified as one of the most effective methods of globalizing curricula and students. The purpose of this study was to examine the current framework of the Leading Change in Costa Rica Study Abroad Program and its ability to diffuse leadership theory to the participating students and to students who are not able to take part in a study abroad opportunity. This study abroad program used reusable learning objects (RLOs) as an assignment to develop global leadership competencies by applying the learned leadership theory in an international context. Students were impacted by the experience. They gained knowledge of the course content, developed and expanded their cultural competencies, and expanded their views of developing countries. The Leading Change in Costa Rica Study Abroad Program also made an effort to develop the intercultural competencies and global leadership abilities of students who are unable to study abroad. The student‐created RLOs have been used in class presentations and made available to interested faculty to use in classrooms across disciplines.     

Institutional analysis for new public governance scholars

ABSTRACT

Over the past several decades, prominent public management and policy scholars have repeatedly identified institutional analysis as a promising tool for empirical research, particularly for the study of ‘new governance’ phenomena where policy is enacted and implemented by actors that span organizations, sectors, jurisdictions, and governance levels. Yet, relatively few empirical studies directly measure and model institutions in management and policy settings. In a systematic review of the literature, we identify challenges and barriers that may prevent management and policy scholars from engaging with institutional analysis, along with examples of studies that illustrate how to overcome these challenges in practice.     

宁波中小企业集群创新网络治理研究

经过多年的发展,宁波众多中小企业集群已经从简单模仿的块状经济发展到集群创新网络。目前宁波中小企业集群发展面临着缺乏整体规划,群内核心企业缺位,群内外资企业植根性差,产学研关系松散以及群内结点关系链凝固,产业链带动能力不足等突出问题。建议今后宁波产业集群治理应实现公共治理和自发治理的协同,从优化公共政策,整合公共资源,扶持核心企业,完善信用机制建设,强化产学研对接以及营造网络化环境等方面进行加强集群治理。     

Legitimacy‐as‐Feeling: How Affect Leads to Vertical Legitimacy Spillovers in Transnational Governance

Transnational governance schemes (TGSs) are interorganizational networks of public and/or private actors that jointly regulate global public policy issues, such as the prevention of human rights violations and the protection of ecosystems. Considering that TGSs mainly address issues of public concern, the general public represents a major source of legitimacy in transnational governance. We theorize how members of the general public, whom we conceptualize as intuiters, apply heuristics to bestow legitimacy on TGSs. Given the difficulty of assessing TGSs, we argue that intuiters draw on affect‐based responses towards a TGS's better‐known network affiliates, such as participating business firms, to judge the legitimacy of the TGS as a whole. This substitution produces a ‘vertical’ legitimacy spillover. More specifically, we examine the heuristic process of judgment underlying vertical spillovers in TGSs and derive implications for the legitimacy construct and the analysis of spillover phenomena.     

Endogenous qualifications and firms'' agglomeration

This paper analyzes firms' location when workers endogenously choose to qualify for professional skills but when they remain uncertain about the potential match between their personal abilities and/or affinities and the firms' specific production tasks. By qualifying in a region where firms agglomerate, workers benefit from higher prospects of good match. At the equilibrium, we show that firms may locate in a single cluster, symmetric clusters or even asymmetric clusters. Comparative statics with respect to product market demand and labor supply parameters are provided.     

Fast Parallels? Contesting Mobile Policy Technologies

This article extends recent examinations of incomplete or disrupted policy mobility by examining the politically volatile case of policies to manage the regional impacts of decarbonization in Australia. The article's extended case study shows how political interests differently incorporated figments of circulating policy into longstanding debates and how more‐than‐local political networks defeated an antipolitical, technocratic exercise in ‘new regional’ governance. ‘Follow the policy’ methods could not have revealed the complexities of this case. The article concludes that mobilities approaches need to be more attentive to institutional arrangements, to the contested politics of policy formation and to the ambiguities of perceived policy likenesses. This case highlights the importance of considering how antipolitical institutional architectures facilitating policy mobility relate to established political power networks.     

The Governance of Networks and Economic Power: The Nature and Impact of Subcontracting Relationships

Abstract.  Current debate on networking focuses on network structures and firm strategies. In this perspective, theoretical analysis has been concerned with allocative issues. This essay proposes a different interpretation. Starting from the existing theoretical framework, we emphasise the nature and the implications of different types of networks with respect to socio‐economic development from a distributional point of view. Within this context, we develop the analysis of subcontracting starting from the concept of economic power. We then provide an analysis of governance in production by considering the attitudes and the nature of the actors involved. The externalisation of activities by large transnationals, which characterises current corporate restructuring, is often related to the search for greater flexibility, but also for greater power over governments, labour, and subcontractors. Differently, networks based on the mutual dependence of actors, which are not necessarily built around a large firm, could – under particular conditions – reach large production scales or more complex scopes without breaking the links with territorial systems, thus including local objectives in the strategic decision‐making process. Our conclusion is that the impact of subcontracting networks varies enormously. This is crucial to an understanding of future trends and possibilities. Not least, firms and public policy agencies need to understand the implications of different forms of subcontracting network and how those forms actually differ in practice.