The Re-emergence of a Media Industry Cluster in Leipzig

This paper begins with the proposition that an analysis of the potentialities of industrial networks has to consider the wider context of the social organization of production. Recent work on industrial clustering has shown that successful clusters are embedded in tight networks of social relations between suppliers, producers, customers and institutions. Localized capabilities, such as specialized resources and skills, conventions and other local institutional structures, provide the basis for inter-firm cooperation. Based on Malmberg and Maskell's (2001) conceptualization of localized industrial clusters, I discuss the horizontal, vertical and institutional cluster dimensions as a basis for empirical analysis. In addition, attention will be drawn to the external dimension and power relations of a cluster which have a strong impact on its growth trajectory. This conceptualization is used as a basis for studying the new Leipzig media industry cluster. Leipzig, which is located in the Neue Länder (States of the former German Democratic Republic), has traditionally been a major centre of industrial production in Germany. After the German unification, a significant proportion of Leipzig's manufacturing activities were terminated or downsized. Interestingly, a new media cluster has developed during the 1990s, driven by the activities of the MDR (Middle German Television and Broadcasting Service). This has stimulated substantial start-up activities in branches of the media industry, such as film/TV production, new electronic services/interactive media, graphics/design, PR/marketing and media-related hardware/software. Being virtually the only sector which has grown in recent years, the media sector has stabilized the local economy. In this paper, I investigate those forces which have supported start-up and location decisions of media firms and the role of local institutions and policy programmes in the clustering process.     

Cooperation and competition in the industrial district as an organization model

Starting from the theory of the industrial district, this paper concentrates on the interplay between competition and cooperation characteristic of the industrial district as an organization model. After recalling the wide vertical and horizontal division of labour between firms in the district, it is shown how cooperation based on local custom and investments in personal reputation allows for the coordination of a large part of complementary activities carried out by local independent firms. Subsequently, we see how competition between firms and agents specialized in similar activities drives them towards allocative efficiency and innovation. Finally, the paper focuses on the reciprocal balance between cooperation and competition which is necessary for stability over time in the industrial district.     

Multi-level Science Policy and Regional Innovation: The Case of the Munich Cluster for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Knowledge-based industries tend to develop within regional or local clusters that allow for knowledge spillovers, the generation of a critical mass of complementary competencies and skills as for spatial proximity to academic organizations out of which many highly innovative firms have been founded. The prototype of that development certainly is the biotechnology industry which has emerged since the 1970s first in the US where especially small and medium-sized research companies have been established around leading science bases. Following the example of the US biotechnology industry, public policies in many industrialized countries aimed at stimulating cluster formation in biotechnology. This holds true especially for member states of the European Union (EU) where public policy initiatives have been initiated at different territorial levels. This article refers to the Munich pharmaceutical biotechnology cluster and applies institutional and organizational indicators that have been developed in various systemic analyses of technological development and innovation. It will be shown that reforms of the institutional environment in which the innovative organizations are embedded were crucial for the commercialization of biotechnological research in Germany. These reforms have occurred mostly at the regional and national level, whereas the EU played a role especially in establishing the regulatory framework for the biotechnology industry. Organizational indicators will be applied in order to assess the modes of knowledge production within the cluster.     

不同类型产业集群发展中地方政府行为的比较研究

产业集群是当今地方政府发展本地经济的主要政策方向之一。本研究首先从理论上探讨地方政府在经济发展和产业集群中行为动机和特征,其次案例分析内生型的花都区狮岭镇皮革皮具产业集群和外生型的东莞市石龙镇电子信息产业集群发展不同阶段中地方政府的行为方式,然后对比发现两种类型产业集群中的地方政府行为方式与产业集群的形成过程和发展特征相协调,最后总结出不同类型产业集群在不同阶段地方政府行为方式的重点领域,以期为地方政府产业集群政策的制定提供参考。     

Regional Advantage of Cluster Development: A Case Study of the San Diego Biotechnology Cluster

The concept of “clusters” has become central to regional economic development strategies, especially in the high-technology and biotechnology industries. Numerous studies have examined the significance of industrial clusters and their components, but comparatively less attention has been directed towards understanding the roots and processes of industrial localization. In particular, emerging biotechnology clusters such as that in San Diego have not drawn adequate scholarly attention given their policy implications with regard to clustering and regional development. Based on in-depth interviews, historical archives and participatory observations, this paper examines how the San Diego biotechnology cluster emerged and grew into an entrepreneurial habitat that has nurtured hundreds of biotechnology companies that have produced a series of innovative products. The author suggests that the regional context of the existence of a number of small biotechnology companies rather than a group of large firms, a continuous flow of talent, and leadership that fosters collaborations have been critical in promoting knowledge creation, circulation and accumulation, which are essential to spawning startups. The regional advantage of San Diego in stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation lies in its edge in creating and exploiting knowledge and practices through its entrepreneurs' robust interactions and participation in local communities of practice.     

中国产业集群研究中的主体能动性与多方验证方法

结合国情的中国产业集群研究需要关注集群内外相关众多主体的合作行动和主体能动性。从属性数据、关系数据以及观念数据的分析视角来看,已有的产业集群研究方法对于各主体的多样性及能动性缺乏充分的考察。源于经济地理而构建的多方验证方法考察集群相关主体的观念数据,悬置对于主体的各种先入为主的假定,在开放与批判的前提下解释多种数据,在此基础上形成对于主体能动性的深度理解,以支持对于集群机制的进一步研究。因而,多方验证方法在产业集群研究中的应用有助于增进案例研究的解释力,促进对于集群主体能动性的理解,并在理论上、方法上与实践上具有广阔的发展空间。     

生产范式变革下集群企业的去地方化研究

在全球化和地方化共同作用下,经济活动的去地方化现象越来越受到关注。与一般的产业转移概念不同,去地方化着重强调企业受到某种作用脱离地方生产网络,进而对地方生产网络产生的影响。目前关于去地方化的研究多集中在欧美国家,且多是基于全球生产网络的视角,而由企业生产范式变革引起的去地方化没有得到应有重视。实际上,在中国沿海地区,集群内创新型企业进行生产范式变革,引起企业去地方化现象十分明显,对地方经济社会产生深刻影响。在此背景下,本文建立生产范式变革、组织协同与企业去地方化的理论架构,分别以东莞鞋业集群和华宏鞋业公司为例,分析鞋业集群和企业在生产范式变革下的去地方化现象,为地方政府更好地制定实施集群政策和产业转移提供理论依据。     

Coping with Economic Crises—The Role of Clusters

The paper analyses the role clusters can play in coping with the impacts of economic crises, specifically by addressing how cluster organizations have acted to meet the challenges following the economic crises in Norway in the period 2008–2010. The paper investigates whether cluster maturity influences how the cluster acts in response to a crisis. To shed light on these questions, survey data from Norwegian cluster organizations were collected in two waves (spring 2009 and autumn 2010), and case studies of four cluster organizations provide further detail. The data indicate that clusters play a role in reducing uncertainty and improving access to necessary resources in crises periods. The data indicate that these advantages are not only due to increased collaboration between firms within the cluster, but that cluster organizations engage in considerable lobbying on behalf of their firms in regards to regional and national policy makers and public funding bodies. When comparing the impact experienced by mature and emerging clusters and their adaptation strategies, the data show that more mature clusters adapted to recent crises by implementing new innovation strategies and increasing collaboration and competence-building activities, to a greater extent than emerging clusters.     

Cluster Facilitation from a Cluster Life Cycle Perspective

Clusters influence the way firms cooperate, organize and compete, but clusters and their related benefits rarely come spontaneously in a straight line of expansion. It is argued that clusters typically develop in accordance with a life cycle, which includes an evolutionary sequence of steps where actors from the private and public sectors are engaged and where one or more cluster facilitators are coordinating and promoting the process. In the literature, the role of cluster facilitators has almost exclusively been described as static, leaving a research gap about how this particular role changes during the life cycle of clusters. Inspired by that research gap, this paper contributes to the understanding of the relationship between cluster development and cluster facilitation. It brings forward a framework for describing and discussing the exact changes taking place in the role of cluster facilitators, including the facilitation focus, competencies and tasks that they make use of along the cluster life cycle. This investigation is based on a multiple case study consisting of nine different clusters located in Denmark.     

Strategic Considerations for Innovation and Commercialization in the US Biotechnology Sector

This paper examines the importance of alliances as an innovation strategy utilized by US biotechnology firms. In doing so, the role of alliances with universities vis-à-vis alliances with industrial companies is emphasized. The biotechnology sector is dominated by few large and many small firms. The small firms are research focused or technology developers. Several large firms are now integrated biopharmaceutical companies. Very few small firms can survive without strengthening their relationships with universities, biotechnology or pharmaceutical or other large companies. These relationships range from licensing agreements, export–import connections to various forms of alliances for R&D, product development and marketing. Large firms supplement in-house R&D by acquiring research products and/or new technologies from small firms as well as universities. A survey of US biotechnology companies is used to show the emergence of alliance relationships, which continue to highlight university linkages, emphasize connections of biotechnology firms with other biotechnology entrepreneurs, and an ongoing effort to build a synergistic relationship with pharmaceutical or other large companies. Most linkages are not confined to the local area; the main locational attribute is the science base or the labour market.     

Managing the Global–Local Dimensions of Clusters and the Role of “Lead” Organizations: The Contrasting Cases of the Software and Medical Technology Clusters in the West of Ireland

The purpose of this paper is to investigate “leading” firms in an industrial cluster to understand how the balance between global and local dimensions of the cluster can be managed. Two cases of industry clusters, the software and medical technology clusters in the west of Ireland, are employed to examine how certain organizations can occupy a “lead” position and how—if at all—such organizations generate an agglomerative effect in a cluster. In the case of the medical technology cluster, the study shows that when large firms enact a leading role by influencing the technology trajectory of the region and stimulating the local dynamic, they can generate agglomerative effects, thereby enhancing the relevance and sustainability of clusters. Most significantly, it shows how leading organizations act as an important facilitator in connecting the global and local dimensions of clusters even in the absence of extensive local formal linkages. At the same time, the case of the software cluster reveals that the presence of large organizations alone does not inevitably stimulate such a clustering effect and emphasizes that appropriate characteristics and conditions need to be in place. Overall, while the study substantiates previous research on the significance of temporary and organized forms of proximity, it also shows the value that permanent geographical proximity can have, thereby contesting recent research that downplays the relevance of the clustering institution (e.g. Lorentzen, A. (2007) The geography of knowledge sourcing—A case study of Polish manufacturing enterprises, European Planning Studies, 15, pp. 467–486; Wickham, J. & Vecchi, A. (2008) Local firms and global reach: Business air travel and the Irish software cluster, European Planning Studies, 16, pp. 693–710).     

Labour Relations and the Transfer of Knowledge in Industrial Clusters: Why do Skilled Workers Share Knowledge with Colleagues in Other Firms?

Industrial clusters are held to offer competitive advantages to firms that accrue from the transfer of tacit knowledge between skilled workers co-located in spatially bound regions. This paper argues that informal knowledge transfers between skilled employees working in spatially bounded industrial clusters might have an association with the labour relationship between employers and employees. In the literature on industrial clusters general knowledge is readily traded through codified texts and collegial networks but high value, tacit knowledge transfers occur less frequently but are critical to the success of firms located in clusters. Tacit knowledge transfers are held to occur when workers move to other firms because of firm death or poaching but less frequently through contacts between colleagues from other firms. Industrial clusters are said to offer labour market advantages for skilled workers in the form of ample job opportunities and rising wages, which engender firm loyalty and discourage the transfer of tacit knowledge of competitive value to other firms. However, the limited empirical evidence available on actual working conditions for skilled workers in regional industrial clusters indicates that this argument is contestable. Some evidence suggests that there are limited wage premiums accruing to the industrial districts, a limited role for geographic proximity, and weak localised returns on seniority and education. We argue that in such circumstances high value knowledge between workers in different firms might be traded as an act of epistemic solidarity or sociability that disregards the interests of employer organisations. Such actions might vary by region and country in relation to the prevailing system of labour relations. Australian labour relations are offered as a case in point.     

INSTITUTIONAL EMBEDDEDNESS AND REGIONAL ADAPTABILITY AND RIGIDITY IN A CHINESE APPAREL CLUSTER

In recent years, the flexibilities industrial clusters may offer to firms within them have been questioned as inter‐firm linkages have, in some cases, locked‐in path‐dependent practices and increased economic rigidities. In this sense, the canonical path dependence model has tended to overlook such trajectories of cluster evolution and has not paid as much attention to the ways in which actors can affect path‐dependent processes. In this article, we build on this critique which has largely been developed in evolutionary economic geography to explore how a cluster becomes progressively locked‐in and how the knowledge base of an industry becomes homogenized, resulting in a loss of innovative dynamism and a slowdown in the growth, or even stasis, of the cluster. By focusing on a case study from China, the article investigates some of the ways in which different kinds of actors respond to external shocks, and the ways in which the resulting processes are fraught with tensions and divergences. In doing so, the article emphasizes that the association between trans‐local pipelines and innovation is not predetermined. The second theoretical contribution of this article lies in its attempt to reveal that all actors can be both path dependent and path breaking, and the process of co‐evolution can be driven by the heterogeneity and divergence of particular actors. Finally, we seek to contribute to existing literature by showing the potential advantages of working at the interface between evolutionary economic geography and other theoretical approaches.     

农区文化产业集群吸收能力与学习研究——以石佛寺玉雕产业集群为例

从技术学习角度出发,提出了农区文化产业集群吸收能力的概念与分析架构。通过对石佛寺玉雕产业集群的研究,指出通过探索性学习、集体性学习、转换性学习与挖掘性学习,我国农区文化产业集群的吸收能力得以形成。发现基于地理临近、关系临近与认知临近,集群的知识获取能力、分享能力等潜在吸收能力较强,但由于农区从业人员整体文化程度偏低、企业规模较小、高校与科研机构少等原因,集群的知识消化或转化能力、利用能力等现实吸收能力仍有较大的提升空间。为强化农区文化产业集群的吸收能力,不仅要完善知识流动与学习的网络,充分发挥政府与行业协会的作用,努力搭建便于中小企业知识转化性学习与挖掘性学习的平台,而且还必须努力提高从业人员的文化素质,加大创新型人才的培育与引进力度。     

Examining the Role of Geographical Proximity in a Cluster's Transformation Process: The Case of Taiwan's Machine Tool Industry

This paper examines the relationship between geographical proximity and a cluster's sustained dynamism with a specific focus on the role of geographical proximity in the transformation of cluster firms' production and learning organizations. Using Taiwan's machine tool cluster as an empirical case, this article studies the nature of various intra- and extra-cluster technological networks established by local firms to tackle the cluster's developmental inertia. In contrast to most recent studies that seem to consider geographical proximity less relevant to the sustained prosperity of incumbent clusters, our case study finds that geographical proximity continues to be a critical factor underlying agglomerated firms' capacity to maintain and explore diverse capabilities within and outside the clusters. On the one hand, co-location allows these firms and their coupled actors to experiment with a range of technological networks and organizational forms in the face of the changing competitive conditions. On the other hand, while the spatial boundaries of important technological networks in the cluster are not necessarily confined to the locality, we find that geographical proximity among networked members is the key to the emergence of and better governing over those crucial extra-cluster networks. In addition to responding to the call for empirical work exploring the relationships between geographical proximity and non-geographical proximity in knowledge creation and exchange, this article contributes to the cluster literature by providing evidence on the evolution of clusters and whether the advantages associated with geographical clustering persist over time.     

全球视野下的价值链治理研究

在全球化背景下,以地方产业集群为发展模式的区域经济,其竞争力的提升需要在全球价值链中与区域外的经济行为主体积极互动,并实现升级。而价值链治理分析是经济地理学理论研究地方产业集群升级的关键。在这种研究视角下,本文以价值链治理为研究对象,首先界定了价值链治理的概念;并从理论上讨论了全球价值链治理模式的主要类型和演化过程;然后,进一步分析了价值链治理产生的原因、价值链治理的应用,以及价值链治理对地方产业网络升级的影响;最后,本文对国际现有的价值链治理理论进行了比较深入的讨论,并提出进一步研究的展望。     

When Firms Take the Lead in Facilitating Clusters

This paper focuses on the role of lead firms and their efforts to facilitate the development of clusters. Several clusters are known for the location of the lead firms that create and shape them, for example, by increasing their skill base, attracting suppliers and creating entrepreneurial activity. However, the literature suffers from insufficient dialogue on the role of lead firms as facilitators of clusters and on how the developmental differences in clusters affect the facilitation performed, and thus the benefits delivered, by lead firms. A key question then is how does the facilitation by lead firms differ in a top-down cluster from that in a bottom-up cluster? The paper is based on a comparative case study investigating the facilitating role of a lead firm within two clusters: Medicon Valley (top-down) and Mechatronics Cluster Denmark (bottom-up). The main conclusion reached is that lead firms in top-down clusters and in bottom-up clusters contribute with quite similar and overlapping cluster benefits, but the way in which these benefits are delivered differs greatly.     

Globalization,Modes of Innovation and Regional Knowledge Diffusion Infrastructures

Firms increasingly transcend the boundaries of regional innovation systems in their search for technology and complementary capabilities, and only rarely can they build their knowledge bases on science system output alone. Whereas the former decouple firms from regional user–producer networks, the latter raises important questions concerning the role of local science and education system actors in industrial development. By applying the “modes of innovation” concept on a Norwegian region, this paper discusses how science and education institutions can respond to the challenges of knowledge base complexity and globalization. It concludes that such institutions may play a vital role in supporting knowledge-based development, albeit different from that of academic knowledge exploration followed by linear technology transfer to industry.     

Innovation,knowledge and relations – on the role of clusters for firms’ innovativeness

ABSTRACT

For more than two decades, theories on regional clusters have inspired economic and structural policies at the European, national and regional levels. Based on the assumption that clusters generate innovation, policy-makers at all levels of governance have adopted instruments and mechanisms to stimulate, resource and sustain clusters. Despite the considerable attention paid to the clustering phenomenon, empirical evidence on to what extent firms’ innovation activities benefit from operating in clusters is scarce and inconclusive. This paper contributes to the micro-foundation of clustering effects by examining the characteristics and activities of cluster firms in relation to their innovativeness. Bridging innovation, management and cluster theories, it is argued that structural and relational embeddedness, relational capital and absorptive capacity influence clustered firms' innovativeness. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling of data from 104 firms in two software and information technology service sector clusters reveals that firms’ structural embeddedness (i.e. frequency of interactions) in clusters and external networks facilitates innovation cooperation. Firms’ absorptive capacity reinforces this positive effect of cluster-internal interactions on innovation cooperation. Results also suggest a substitution effect of trust as relational control mechanisms for formal control mechanisms within the cluster. However, the study finds no significant impact of firms’ innovation cooperation within the cluster (i.e. relational embeddedness) on their innovation success.     

Knowledge-Intensive Business Services as Knowledge Intermediaries in Industrial Regions: A Comparison of the Hsinchu and Tainan Metropolitan Areas

Abstract

The literature repeatedly stresses the role of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) as a provider of knowledge and information to other businesses and organizations. KIBS simultaneously promotes, mediates and enables client innovation. This investigation mainly seeks to link KIBS to the analytical structure of concepts, including regional innovation systems, knowledge exchanges and innovation patterns. This investigation interprets the role of KIBS as that of a knowledge intermediary that mediates and transmits knowledge among actors. This study also clarifies the mechanism of knowledge exchanges in different geographic innovation systems. The analytical results obtained by this investigation are applied to analyse the intermediary functions of KIBS in various metropolitan areas in southern and northern Taiwan. This investigation demonstrates variations in how KIBS act as knowledge intermediaries, and that these variations depend mostly on industrial cluster patterns, the dominant innovation patterns at their locations and the birth of sustainable KIBS. KIBS in large/core metropolitan regions, thus, are initially based on science, technology and innovation industrial activities, and further closely resemble doing, using and interaction industrial activities. Consequently, more informal learning processes, such as local buzz and discussion/competition relations, tend to develop in such regions.