| Abstract: |
Extensive research has been conducted on how firms and regions take advantage
of spatially concentrated assets, and also why history matters to regional
specialisation patterns. In brief, it seems that innovation clusters as a
distinctive regional entity in international business and the geography of
innovation are of increasing importance in STI policy, innovation systems and
competitiveness studies. Recently, more and more research has contributed to
an evolutionary perspective on collaboration in clusters. Nonetheless, the
field of cluster or regional innovation systems remains a multidisciplinary
field where the state of the art is determined by the individual perspective
(key concepts could, for example, be industrial districts, innovative clusters
with reference to OECD, regional knowledge production, milieus & sticky
knowledge, regional lock-ins & path dependencies, learning regions or sectoral
innovation systems). According to our analysis, the research gap lies in both
quantitative, comparative surveys and in-depth concepts of knowledge dynamics
and cluster evolution. Therefore this paper emphasises the unchallenged
in-depth characteristics of knowledge utilisation within a cluster’s
collaborative innovation activities. More precisely, it deals with knowledge
dynamics in terms of matching different agents´ knowledge stocks via knowledge
flows, common technology specification (standard-setting), and knowledge
spillovers. The means of open innovation and system boundaries for spatially
concentrated agents in terms of knowledge opportunities and the capabilities
of each agent await clarification. Therefore, our study conceptualises the
interplay between firm- and cluster-level activities and externalities for
knowledge accumulation but also for the specification of technology. It
remains particularly unclear how, why and by whom knowledge is aligned and
ascribed to a specific sectoral innovation system. Empirically, this study
contributes with several descriptive calculations of indices, e.g. knowledge
stocks, GINI coefficients, Herfindahl indices, and Revealed Patent Advantage
(RPA), which clearly underline a high spatial concentration of both mechanical
engineering and biotechnology within a European NUTS2 sample for the last two
decades. Conceptually, our paper matches the geography of innovation
literature, innovation system theory, and new ideas related to the economics
of standards. Therefore, it sheds light on the interplay between knowledge
flows and externalities of cluster-specific populations and the agents’ use of
such knowledge, which is concentrated in space. We find that knowledge
creation and standard-setting are cross-fertilising each other: although the
spatial concentration of assets and high-skilled labour provides new
opportunities to the firm, each firm’s knowledge stocks need to be
contextualised. The context in terms of ‘use case’ and ‘knowledge biography’
makes technologies (as represented in knowledge stocks) available for
collaboration, but also clarifies relevance and ownership, in particular
intellectual property concerns. Owing to this approach we propose a
conceptualisation which contains both areas with inter- and intra-cluster
focus. This proposal additionally concludes that spatial and technological
proximity benefits standard-setting in high-tech and low-tech industries in
very different ways. More precisely, the versatile tension between knowledge
stocks, their evolution, and technical specification & implementation requires
the conceptualisation and analysis of a non-linear process of
standard-setting. Particularly, the use case of technologies is essential.
Related to this approach, clusters strongly support the establishment of
technology use cases in embryonic high-tech industries. Low-tech industries in
contrast rather depend on approved knowledge stocks, whose dynamics provide
better and fast accessible knowledge inputs within low-tech clusters. |