Overcoming Undesirable Knowledge Redundancy in Territorial Clusters

Abstract

This work analyzes the existence of redundant knowledge associated with geographic networks of firms. Specifically, our research focuses on how firms can avoid inefficient redundancy ties derived from territorial clusters. We propose that firms embedded in a dense and strong-tie network generate redundant knowledge flows. However, they may use structural dispersion to mediate and overcome this limitation. Our empirical study was conducted drawing on the Spanish ceramic tile industrial cluster to test the potential association between social capital and redundancy. Our findings support the idea that structural dispersion mediates the effects of strong ties and the generation of knowledge redundancy.