Knowledge spillovers and culture-embeddedness: geographic clusters in transitional China

Abstract

While looking through the arguments concerning knowledge spillovers in the geographic cluster, most of current literatures consider knowledge spillovers as take-for-granted existence in the industrial cluster, and few authors even explore the sources, contributors and channels of knowledge spillovers. The paper specially pays attention to the mechanisms of knowledge spillovers in traditional industrial cluster in eastern China. Based on the investigation in seven Chinese industrial clusters, we find that Chinese traditional industrial clusters are characterized as the uniqueness of knowledge spillovers in comparison with west industrial clusters because local cultural factors effectively control the behaviors of firms and individuals. Then, some findings about cultural-embeddedness are given to explain the uniqueness of knowledge spillovers.