Knowledge Spillovers in High-tech Clusters in Developing Countries

1
Knowledge Spillovers in High-tech Clusters in
Developing Countries
Ph.D.-School on National Systems of Innovation
and Economic Development

• Effie Kesidou
• (Ecis) Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies
• (TU/e) Eindhoven University of Technology

2
Local Knowledge Spillovers (LKS)

• LKS are positive externalities which derive from
  the inability of a firm A to retain the full
  product of its innovative activity. Thus, firm B
  may take advantage of the new product directly
  and without compensating firm A.
• Is Innovation a local process?
• Economic Geography LKS are the reason for the
  clustering of economic activity (Jaffe 1989,
  1993, Audretsch and Feldman 1992).
• Tacit Knowledge cannot be codified. Rather it is
  exchanged locally through face-to-face
  interaction.

3
Territorial Theories Sources of Clustering or Innovation
New Economic Geography Advantages related to Transaction Cost
Economic Geography Knowledge Spillovers
Porters Cluster Theory Competion economies of agglomeration
New Industrial Spaces Economies of agglomer. institutions/ culture
Industrial District Economies of agglomer. social embeddedness
Innovative Milieux Local Institutions that support Innovation
Regional Systems of Innovation Formal Institutions that target Innovation
Learning Region Emphasis on the role of social/cultural environment
4
Critic

• The relationship of patents-patent citations as
  well as RD-innovation output constitutes an
  inderect evidence of the presence and strength of
  LKS (Breschi and Lissoni 2001).
• Does knowledge circulates freely within the
  cluster (Zucker et al 1998)?
• Attributes of knowledge tacit-codifiable. This
  is an extreme categorisation (Cowan, David and
  Foray 2000).
• Which are the Mechanisms of Knowledge Flow?

5
Knowledge Flow
6
Knowledge Flow
7
Mechanisms of Learning, Knowledge Flow
Innovation
Trial-error Learning by operating Learning by
changing System performance feedback Routines
Intra-firm learning
Firms Innovative Performance
Firms Innovative capabilities
Mechanisms of learning
Inter-firm learning
Knowledge flow
Learning by hiring Learning by training Learning
by searching Informal meetings Trade fairs
1. Local Knowledge Spillovers 2. Pecuniary Local
Knowledge Flow 3. Non-local Knowledge
Spillovers 4. Local exchange of Inofrmation based
on Reciprocity
8
Project outcome

• Identification of the mechanisms of knowledge
  flow within a cluster.
• How important are LKS vs other mechanisms of
  knowledge flow for firms technological
  performance?
• Which is the quantitative distribution of the
  different mechanisms of knowledge flow over firms
  within the cluster?
• Is there any correlation between absorptive
  capacity of firms and their choise of a
  particular type of knowledge flow?