This paper attempts to investigate the interplay of local and global forces with respect to the processes of knowledge acquisition and exploitation by the start-ups localised inside an industrial cluster. In particular, we empirically intend to determine if start-ups localised inside an industrial cluster are more likely to acquire and exploit significant levels of knowledge from their co-localised customers than from globally localised and dispersed customers, considering several potential explicative factors. The hypotheses are tested with face-to-face survey data from 56 high-tech start-ups localised in a metropolitan cluster in the city of Rome, considering their relationships with main customers, localised both inside and outside the cluster. Our results show a negative and very significant influence of proximity between the local start-ups and their customers on both knowledge acquisition and knowledge exploitation by a local start-up. We suggest the need for a local start-up of business contacts with distant customers localised outside the cluster who become the profitable sources of the start-ups’ knowledge spillovers, confirming the importance of pipeline channels used in such distant interactions. It seems that it is not so much co-location that is important as belonging to a network in which both local start-ups and their customers are widely interactive. Moreover, these results put in evidence that a lot of other factors seem to have a strong influence on processes of both knowledge acquisition and exploitation by these local start-ups, encouraging further analysis of these processes inside an industrial cluster.
Titolo: | Inter-organizational geographical proximity and local start-ups’ knowledge acquisition: a dynamic approach |
Autore/i: | PRESUTTI, MANUELA; BOARI, CRISTINA; Majocchi A. |
Autore/i Unibo: | |
Anno: | 2010 |
Titolo del libro: | 26th EGOS Colloquium |
Pagina iniziale: | 1 |
Pagina finale: | 28 |
Abstract: | This paper attempts to investigate the interplay of local and global forces with respect to the processes of knowledge acquisition and exploitation by the start-ups localised inside an industrial cluster. In particular, we empirically intend to determine if start-ups localised inside an industrial cluster are more likely to acquire and exploit significant levels of knowledge from their co-localised customers than from globally localised and dispersed customers, considering several potential explicative factors. The hypotheses are tested with face-to-face survey data from 56 high-tech start-ups localised in a metropolitan cluster in the city of Rome, considering their relationships with main customers, localised both inside and outside the cluster. Our results show a negative and very significant influence of proximity between the local start-ups and their customers on both knowledge acquisition and knowledge exploitation by a local start-up. We suggest the need for a local start-up of business contacts with distant customers localised outside the cluster who become the profitable sources of the start-ups’ knowledge spillovers, confirming the importance of pipeline channels used in such distant interactions. It seems that it is not so much co-location that is important as belonging to a network in which both local start-ups and their customers are widely interactive. Moreover, these results put in evidence that a lot of other factors seem to have a strong influence on processes of both knowledge acquisition and exploitation by these local start-ups, encouraging further analysis of these processes inside an industrial cluster. |
Data prodotto definitivo in UGOV: | 24-feb-2011 |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 4.01 Contributo in Atti di convegno |