Identifying and bridging networks in regional clusters

Networks within an organization and also among organizations are expected to work as conduits of resources and knowledge for innovation. Previous papers have shown that dense networks are closely related with innovation performance. Tight relationships in a close knit group foment trust among actors in the network and therefore promote collaborations, and diverse connections with the others can open an opportunity for breakthrough. In this paper, we quantitatively evaluate the network structure of an industrial cluster and compare its results with that of a field study, and found that firms in the cluster do not regard it as dense, which means that there are opportunities even in the densest network. This is because it is not so easy to look for business partners beyond a company's current partnerships while tight communication exists among firms having partnerships. Therefore, we propose a system of finding a plausible business partner to span the current boundary and to support the networking.