Jose-Luis Hervas-Oliver

Local knowledge domains and the role of MNE affiliates in bridging and complementing a cluster's knowledge

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can play the role of extracting, diffusing and bringing knowledge through external linkages. The classical literature of industrial districts has not focused on these external ties, although occasionally they have been mentioned when trying to avoid lock-in and entropic inertia. This work focuses on this gap and examines the process of knowledge exchange between clusters through MNE affiliates which operate in all of them. Empirical work is conducted with interviews to clustered indigenous firms with affiliates operating in other clusters and affiliates belonging to MNEs which are independent of other clusters, all of them in the ceramic tile industry. The results show that the knowledge created in the collective learning process is local-scaled and is created from interaction between local SMEs and indigenous and foreign MNEs. The knowledge created in other clusters is introduced through foreign MNE affiliates complementing the local one. The results, interpreted within and limited to this context, can also provide insight into policy-making. Within global industries, polycentric networks from different clusters are open entities formed by local SMEs and connected and linked with foreign and indigenous MNE affiliates which sustain the channels that allow knowledge to be transferred from a local to a global scale.

The Importance of Creative Industry Agglomerations in Explaining the Wealth of European Regions

This paper examines the existence of regional agglomerations of manufacturing, service and creative industries, the relationship between these industries and the wealth of regions and their industrial structure. Through an analysis of 250 European regions, three important conclusions can be inferred from the results obtained in this paper. The first is that creative industries play an important role in the wealth of a region. The second is that the most creative regions are characterized by having more high-tech manufacturing industries than the rest of the regions although the number of low-tech manufacturing firms is similar. Lastly, the industrial structure of each region has a greater influence on regional wealth than the existence of industrial agglomerations. The importance of this paper resides in the fact that up until now no analysis has demonstrated that creative industries are the most important industries in regional wealth.

The role of a firm's absorptive capacity and the technology transfer process in clusters: How effective are technology centres in low-tech clusters?

This paper analyses how the internal resources of small- and medium-sized enterprises determine access (learning processes) to technology centres (TCs) or industrial research institutes (innovation infrastructure) in traditional low-tech clusters. These interactions basically represent traded (market-based) transactions, which constitute important sources of knowledge in clusters. The paper addresses the role of TCs in low-tech clusters, and uses semi-structured interviews with 80 firms in a manufacturing cluster. The results point out that producer–user interactions are the most frequent; thus, the higher the sector knowledge-intensive base, the more likely the utilization of the available research infrastructure becomes. Conversely, the sectors with less knowledge-intensive structures, i.e. less absorptive capacity (AC), present weak linkages to TCs, as they frequently prefer to interact with suppliers, who act as transceivers of knowledge. Therefore, not all the firms in a cluster can fully exploit the available research infrastructure, and their AC moderates this engagement. In addition, the existence of TCs is not sufficient since the active role of a firms search strategies to undertake interactions and conduct openness to available sources of knowledge is also needed. The study has implications for policymakers and academia.

Are technology gatekeepers renewing clusters? Understanding gatekeepers and their dynamics across cluster life cycles

The cluster literature assumes that technology gatekeepers (TGs) shape a districts learning process and its evolution. However, analysis of the resilience of TGs, and their role across different stages of the cluster life cycle (CLC), is absent. Instead, most of the evidence that has been produced is set at a particular stage of the CLC. This article seeks to use a qualitative case study to understand the dynamics of TGs, and their knowledge creation and diffusion capabilities in the CLC renewal period. This is a stage less studied in the literature. Further, the article explores TG resilience across different stages of the CLC. Our results show that not all TGs are resilient and necessary for cluster renewal. In addition, they are not sufficient for fostering disruptions: their manifest reluctance to destroy the status quo and their network centrality makes necessary the entrance of new firms with new knowledge. TGs are necessary because they facilitate a clusters transition across stages thanks to their powerful control of the most vital aspect of clusters: networks.

‘May the ovens never grow cold’: regional resilience and industrial policy in the North Staffordshire ceramics industrial district – with lessons from Sassoulo and Castellon

In the aftermath of the recent global recession, the concept of regional resilience is becoming increasingly important in regional policy circles. This paper seeks to add to the debate by exploring resilience and recent policy initiatives in the context of the North Staffordshire ceramics district. A key issue here has been the economic governance of the district, which has had a significant impact upon its current trajectory. Drawing upon a series of interviews with local actors, we examine the districts ‘adaptive capacity’ to move onto a new trajectory. In particular, we note the importance of district firms developing wider networking opportunities, particularly external ties; insights here are garnered from the relatively successful links between Castellon and Sassoulo ceramics districts.

The Economic Geography of the Meso-global Spaces: Integrating Multinationals and Clusters at the Local--Global Level

The local–global phenomenon literature is fragmented between the fields of international business and economic geography (EG). In the case of the latter, the literature, produced within the global production networks (GPNs) and global value chain frameworks, does not address the central role of firms, especially multinationals which co-locate and connect territories along GPNs. This paper develops a cross-field conceptual integration in order to enrich the EG perspective, using qualitative research methodology to test the framework. The results have important implications for scholars and policymakers.

Beyond R&D activities: the determinants of firms’ absorptive capacity explaining the access to scientific institutes in low--medium-tech contexts

A firms search strategy is to use innovation inputs from external sources such as suppliers, clients, competitors, universities and research transfer offices (RTOs) to complement their in-house knowledge. Thus, a firm needs to be capable of identifying and valuing the potential value of certain external knowledge, i.e. absorptive capacity. Most of the studies regarding search patterns are reduced mostly to medium–high- and high-tech industries in which only the level of investment in R&D activities as determinant of a firms search strategy is considered. In addition, when the flows of external knowledge arise from firm–university interactions, the evidence is still inconclusive, specifically for SMEs and low–medium-tech environments. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to explore the pattern of a firms search strategy through its absorptive capacity to acquire external flows of knowledge from universities and RTOs. The paper draws especially on the role of non-R&D innovation activities in low–medium-tech sectors. Seven hundred and forty three innovative firms from the Spanish Ministry of Industry are analysed. Results suggest that human resources and other non-R&D activities are the core drivers explaining the cooperation agreements to access external knowledge from universities and RTOs. Surprisingly, R&D expenditures do not contribute to the explanation. This paper presents important implications for policy-makers beyond the classic R&D policies.

Technological innovation without R&D: unfolding the extra gains of management innovations on technological performance

This paper analyses how management (organisational and marketing) innovations influence non-R&D technological innovators’ performance. Drawing on Community of Innovation Survey data to examine 5878 non-R&D Spanish firms, results indicate that the joint introduction of management innovations with technological innovations improves technological innovative performance thanks to the creation of complex innovation capabilities. Thus, the joint adoption of management and technological innovations in tandem is linked to a premium effect on performance based on complementarities. Non-R&D technological innovators heavily use organisational and marketing activities in order to compensate for their lack of engagement in R&D activities. This is the first paper that brings the management innovation literature into the non-R&D technological innovators debate, using a resource-based view framework.

Management Innovation and Technological Innovation: Friends or Foes?

Understanding of management innovation has been advanced in the last decade, but it is still a relatively under-researched topic, at least in comparison with that of technological innovation. This article introduces this volume on Management Innovation; it reviews critically, the multiple conceptual approaches to the topic, looks at the different research streams related to it, and considers the performance consequences or its occurrence. In the latter respect, the article analyzes the synergistic effects of co-adopting management and technological innovation. It also provides a robust theoretical foundation for addressing co-adoption, using a cross-disciplinary perspective. The article also notes that the literature on joint adoption has three blind spots: (i) the literature is fragmented into different, albeit complementary, frameworks and perspectives; (ii) the literature has mainly focused on technological performance, or other general performance, effects deriving from the introduction of management innovations, giving less attention to specific management innovation effects; and (iii) the literature so far has not looked at the joint adoption of specific pairs of technological and management innovations. Finally, as a general point, the article observes that it is surprising how little empirical research has so far gone into exploring the association between the adoption of management innovation and its performance outcomes.

Global value chain reconfiguration through external linkages and the development of newcomers: a global story of clusters and innovation

Industrial district literature has focused on local endogenous development. So far, these works analyse the external ties between clusters and the reconfiguration of global value chains (GVC) in the last decade, opening a new research stream to understand innovation and its impact on differing territories. This article analyses intercluster linkages through multinational enterprise (MNE) affiliates that are located in related clusters along the ceramic GVC. Firstly, the paper explores how the clusters within the industry have changed over time and uses a qualitative meta-study approach. Secondly, an explorative analysis is conducted to analyse how MNE and the external linkages MNE affiliates help to connect distant clusters and to diffuse innovation which reshape the GVC although not all the industries and clusters play the same role in reconfiguring GVCs.