Emerging specialisations and software metropolitan clusters - a comparative network analysis on San Francisco, New York and London

Abstract

The software industry is highly fragmented, and the success of start-ups and innovative SMEs strictly depends on their ability to specialise and exploit market adjacencies and technological complementarities. By focusing on the software industries of San Francisco, New York and London, this article proposes an original approach to detecting firms' specialisations and clusters and employs a network analysis using metadata to determine emerging specialisations and capture market and technological complementarities and capture market and technological complementarities, emphasising the latter as drivers of software metropolitan clusters. Results highlight 'mobile' as one of the most relevant software aggregates in all three cities, enucleate a group of innovative firms in New York focusing on social-media and data analytics, and identify diversified 'business-to-business' software clusters, together with a 'web' and a 'marketing' cluster, arising in London and San Francisco. Several implications can be derived to support both corporate and policy-making decisions, providing useful information to accelerate product development and implement long-term local innovation policy.