Marc D. Bahlmann

The Emergence of a Knowledge-Based View of Clusters and Its Implications for Cluster Governance

This article examines the knowledge component in cluster literature from its origins to the present. A chronological perspective is deployed in order to shed light on how the concept of clusters has evolved. Given the increasing interest in clusters as knowledge repositories, and the apparent conviction among policymakers of the manageability of clusters, lessons learned from knowledge management (KM) practices in organizations might well be applied to the many policy efforts aimed at governing clusters. We argue that introducing KM initiatives on a regional level should be accompanied by an understanding of the possible downfalls that are associated with KM failures.

Space, innovation and the locus of knowledge: an ontological response to Rutten

Marc Bahlmann is assistant professor at VU University Amsterdam. He received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Social Sciences (VU University) for a study on knowledge dynamics among IT entrepreneurs located in the Amsterdam IT and new media cluster. His current research interests include alliance portfolios, organizational and regional innovation.

DOES DISTANCE MATTER? AN EMPIRICAL EXPLORATION OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF LEARNING.

The purpose of this article is to empirically analyze how different forms of proximity influence interactive learning and ease of knowledge transfer among entrepreneurs, in order to advance the kno...

Open Service Innovation: Literature Review and Directions for Future Research

Open service innovation enables business service firms to realize service innovations through engaging in external partnerships. The results of a review of studies investigating open innovation in a business service context indicate that prior work (1) primarily drew on a learning lens to explain service innovation and (2) adopted three levels of analysis, that is, alliance, alliance portfolio, and network, resulting in three disconnected research streams. In this chapter, we review each research stream and suggest future research opportunities. In addition, we suggest that factors tied to the three analysis levels directly and interactively influence service innovation. Therefore, we propose a multi-level open service innovation framework that can guide future research.

Open innovation and KIBS Start-Ups: Technology- and market based alliance portfolio configurations

Firms are increasingly relying on combining internal resources with external knowledge to sustain firm renewal, which has led to open innovation being considered critical to a firm’s competitive advantage (Chesbrough, 2003). Successful open innovation produces first-mover advantages, superior financial returns, market growth, and market share (Lichtenhaler, 2011). In particular, knowledgeintensive business services (KIBS) start-ups—defined as “[new] expert companies that provide services to other companies and organizations” (Toivonen, 2006, 2)—rely on open innovation, as it is their primary knowledge input and output (Gallouj, 2002). However, KIBS start-ups are exposed to extant uncertainty because they face risk in the form of liability of newness, liability of smallness, and fundamental uncertainty. This uncertainty can be mitigated via a firm’s portfolio of alliance relationships (Ozcan and Eisenhardt, 2009).