Competitiveness in new technology-based firms: between local high-tech clusters and global technological markets

Abstract

This paper adopts a resource-based view (RBV) and analyses what conditions support the local and international competitiveness of small companies in both their local high-tech clusters (HCs) and global markets. The question we are trying to address in this paper is therefore: what makes the resources in a new technology-based firm (NTBF) sources of competitive advantages both within its local industrial network and on global markets? We argue that NTBF resources (especially those related to knowledge and expertise of firms) are likely to achieve both goals solely if they are both locally homogeneous and globally heterogeneous. Resources that fail to fulfil these two conditions can only be effective in one (or maybe neither) of these two external environments.