Abstract
Most analyses of the relationship between spatial clustering and the
technological learning of firms have emphasised the influence of
the former on the latter, and have focused on intra-cluster learning
as the driver of innovative performance. This paper reverses those
perspectives. It examines the influence of individual firms’ absorptive
capacities on both the functioning of the intra-cluster knowledge
system and its interconnection with extra-cluster knowledge. It applies
social network analysis to identify different cognitive roles played
by cluster firms and the overall structure of the knowledge system
of a wine cluster in Chile. The results show that knowledge is not
diffused evenly ‘in the air’, but flows within a core group of firms
characterised by advanced absorptive capacities. Firms’ different
cognitive roles include some—as in the case of technological gatekeepers—that
contribute actively to the acquisition, creation and diffusion of
knowledge. Others remain cognitively isolated from the cluster, though
in some cases strongly linked to extra-cluster knowledge. Possible
implications for policy are noted.
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