Impact of the Types of Clusters on the Innovation Output and the Appropriation of Rents from Innovation

Abstract

The ability to generate innovations and capture the rents from innovation are important for firms’ competitive advantage. Increasingly firms seek knowledge abundant locations, or industry clusters, to access novel knowledge and generate innovations through knowledge recombinations (Schumpeter, 1934). We examine how different types of clusters impact on the innovation output, the knowledge flows among the clustered firms and, ultimately, on who captures the rents from innovation. The type of cluster reflects the configuration of firms and the interactions among firms, individuals and agencies in the cluster and is likely to be a major driver of both the innovative output and of which firms will be more likely to capture the rents from innovation. Extant research has noted that the social and business networks binding firms in clusters are excellent vehicles for the flow of knowledge that eases innovations, but different types of clusters may lead to different outcomes.