Innovation networks in clusters: local and global in the creation of competitive advantage

Abstract

Clusters are organizational forms which present intertwined relations between public and private agents around a productive segment in a determined region, which has been considered as source of competitive advantage for firms and regions. This model highlights a favorable environment to innovation development and quality and productivity improvement, especially for giving rise to innovation networks to handle with different market and technology conditions. The innovative process, which is favorable to networks, can be enhanced by the involvement of university-firm, components of Triple Helix Statement. The purpose of this work is to present innovative Clusters as forms capable of offering competitive advantage by means of the relationship between global and local contexts. We consider that the network extent and its characteristics affect Clusters’ performance once environments become more uncertain. That is both the network strength and the opening degree of network can be beneficial for Clusters. We argue that firms’ capacity to manage the balance between the force and articulation of an open network is a basic source of sustainable and competitive of the Cluster. We observed that public institutions can perform an important role to facilitate the development of new knowledge and consequently innovation. This paper approaches the characteristics of the Clusters that are influential to the competitive advantage of the agents which it constitutes; presents the concepts and characteristics of innovation networks and the role of Triple Helix Statement on its constitution and also deals with the potential of local context to give competitive advantage in a globalization context.