# 10.19 Do Firms Benefit from Being Present in Multiple Technology Clusters? An Assessment of the Technological Performance of Biopharmaceutical Firms.

Catherine Lecocq and Bart Leten and Jeroen Kusters and Bart Van Looy

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Firms active in knowledge-intensive fields are increasingly organizing their R&D activities on an international scale. This paper investigates whether firms active in biotechnology can improve their technological performance by developing R&D activities in multiple technology clusters. Regions in the US, Japan and Europe, that host a concentration of biotechnology activity are identified as clusters. Fixed-effect panel data analyses with 59 biopharmaceutical firms (period 1995-2002) provides evidence for a positive, albeit diminishing (inverted-U shape) relationship between the number of technology clusters in which a firm is present and its overall technological performance. This effect is distinct from a mere multi-location effect.

# 10.18 Regional Economic Resilience, Hysteresis and Recessionary Shocks

Ron Martin

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The notion of ‘resilience’ has recently risen to prominence in several disciplines, and has also entered policy discourse.  Yet the meaning and relevance of the concept are far from settled matters.  This paper develops the idea of resilience and examines its usefulness as an aid to understanding the reaction of regional economies to major recessionary shocks. But in so doing, it is also argued that the notion of resilience can usefully be combined with that of hysteresis in order to more fully capture the possible reactions of regional economies to major recessions. These ideas are then used as the basis for a preliminary empirical analysis of the UK regions.

# 10.17 Do Cooperative R&D Subsidies Stimulate Regional Innovation Efficiency? Evidence from Germany

Tom Broekel

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The paper investigates the impact of R&D subsidies on regional innova- tion efficiency. Building on a rich panel data set covering 270 German labor market regions and four industries, it is particularly shown that subsidies for R&D cooperation are a suitable policy measure for stimulating the in- novation efficiency of regions. The empirical findings moreover suggest that regions with low innovation capacities benefit from subsidized inter-regional cooperation involving partners with diverse industrial and sectoral back- grounds. Establishing inter-regional cooperation that give access to related knowledge and skills is more important for regions with large innovation capacities.

 

# 10.16 Regional knowledge and the emergence of an industry: Laser systems production in West Germany, 1975–2005

Guido Buenstorf and Michael Fritsch and Luis Medrano

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We analyze the emergence and spatial evolution of the German laser systems industry. Regional knowledge in the related field of laser sources, as well as the presence of universities with physics or engineering departments, is conducive to the emergence of laser systems suppliers. The regional presence of source producers is also positively related to entry into laser systems. One important mechanism behind regional entry is the diversification of upstream laser source producers into the downstream systems market. Entry into the materials processing submarket appears to be unrelated to academic knowledge in the region, but the presence of laser source producers and the regional stock of laser knowledge are still highly predictive in this submarket.

# 10.15 The determinants of co-inventor tie formation: proximity and network dynamics

Lorenzo Cassi and Anne Plunket

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This paper investigates the determinants of co-inventor tie formation using micro-data on genomic patents from 1990 to 2006 in France. We consider in a single analysis the relational and proximity perspectives that are usually treated separately. In order to do so, we analyse the determinants of network ties that occur within existing components and between two distinct components (i.e. bridging ties). We test the argument that formation of these two different types of ties results from distinct strategies in accessing resources. Doing so, we contrast network and proximity determinants of network formation and we investigate if social network allows economic actors to cross over geographical, technological and organizational boundaries.

# 10.14 Network Dynamics in Regional Clusters: The Perspective of an Emerging Economy

Elisa Giuliani

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Regional clusters are spatial agglomerations of firms operating in the same or connected industries, which enable innovation and economic performance for firms. A wealth of empirical literature shows that one of key elements of the success of regional clusters is that they facilitate the formation of local inter-organizational networks, which act as conduits of knowledge and innovation. While most studies analyze the benefits and characteristics of regional cluster networks and focus on advanced economies and high tech ‘hot spots’, this paper advances with the existing literature by analyzing network dynamics and taking an emerging economy’s perspective. Using longitudinal data of a wine cluster in Chile and stochastic actor-oriented models for network dynamics, this paper examines what micro-level effects influence the formation of new knowledge ties among wineries. It finds that the coexistence of cohesion effects (reciprocity and transitivity) and the presence of inter-firm knowledge base heterogeneity contribute to the stability of an informal hierarchical network structure over time. Empirical results have interesting implications for cluster competitiveness and network studies, and for the burgeoning literature on corporate behavior in emerging economies.

# 10.13 The Role of Technological Gatekeepers in the Growth of Industrial Clusters: Evidence from Chile

Elisa Giuliani

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Industrial clusters are often associated with innovative success. However, there is very little research on what types of organizational models apply to clusters as they grow, to facilitate upgrading and innovation – and especially in emerging/developing countries. This paper uses longitudinal micro-level data for a wine cluster in Chile. They show that the most advanced firms in the cluster behave as Technological Gatekeepers – i.e. they acquire knowledge outside cluster boundaries and contribute to diffusing knowledge to other, potentially rival, local firms – and do so persistently over time. The results are explained by combining three theoretical perspectives: evolutionary economics theory; business studies on communities of practice and knowledge workers’ know-how trade; and embeddedness theory.

#10.12 Related variety and regional growth in Spain

R. Boschma and A. Minondo and M. Navarro

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This paper investigates whether related variety, among other types of spatial externalities, affected regional growth in Spain at the NUTS 3 level during the period 1995-2007. We found evidence that related variety matters for growth across regions, especially when measured with the assistance of the Porter’s cluster classification and the proximity index proposed by Hidalgo et al.. That is, Spanish provinces with a range of industries that are technologically related tend to show higher economic growth rates, controlling for the usual suspects. We did not find, however, any evidence of regional growth effects that come from technologically related sectors imports.

#10.11 An investigation of the relation between cooperation and the innovative success of German regions

Tom Broekel and Matthias Buerger and Thomas Brenner

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Concepts like regional innovation systems, innovative milieu, and learning regions emphasize the positive contribution of intra-regional cooperation to firms’ innovation performance. Despite substantial numbers of case studies, the quantitative empirical evidence for this claim is thin. Using data on the co-application and co-invention of patents for 270 German labor market regions the study shows that intra-regional cooperation intensity and regional innovation efficiency are associated. In contrast to the negative influence of inter-regional cooperation, medium levels of intra-regional cooperation stimulate regional innovation efficiency.

#10.10 Transversality and Transition: Branching to New Regional Path Dependence

Philip Cooke

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Since Paul David published his economic histories of path dependent innovation the subject has exerted fascination upon scholars of innovation, technological change and, latterly, regional scientists and economic geographers. This paper speaks to the third and fourth of these communities in the main, though it may have theoretical and empirical elements of interest to the first two as well. The paper begins with an overview of recent perspectives and critiques concerning the relevance of the path dependence concept to the understanding of regional economic development and its associated governance. It then goes on to discuss the contribution of evolutionary economic geography to thinking about ‘branching’ from path dependence and the creation of new paths. Evidence for key generic spatial processes of path transition is provided before the main content of the paper concludes with new insights into the contributions of regional innovation policy to path evolution. Conclusions are then drawn.