Information Technology Clusters Research Articles

Managing innovation for economic development in greater China: The origins of Hsinchu and Zhongguancun

This paper reports on the preliminary findings from a three-year research project exploring the growth of information technology (IT) clusters in Hsinchu, Taiwan and Zhongguancun, China. Drawing on the history of the origins of IT clusters in these two cities, we examine the formation of clusters to understand the mechanisms and factors, such as technological change and institutional reform, which influenced the formation of these clusters. We discuss the issues concerning the process of managing innovation, the conditions that trigger and/or maintain innovation, and the source of technology for innovation. We conclude that successful innovation in origins of IT clusters is a result of the interplay between the state, the market, and the NGOs.

Stimulation of innovations: case of the Latvian IT cluster

This paper is based on assumption that innovation and competitiveness can be facilitated by clusters. The cluster approach has certain advantages which could be explored by firms looking for increased growth, competitiveness and innovation. The analysis of the Latvian Information Technology cluster shows that it has developed a platform for increasing competitiveness and innovation capacity for IT firms, and it helps to draw conclusions for further improvement of cluster and individual company performance.

Stimulation of innovations: Case of the Latvian IT cluster

This paper is based on assumption that innovation and competitiveness can be facilitated by clusters. The cluster approach has certain advantages which could be explored by firms looking for increased growth, competitiveness and innovation. The analysis of the Latvian Information Technology cluster shows that it has developed a platform for increasing competitiveness and innovation capacity for IT firms, and it helps to draw conclusions for further improvement of cluster and individual company performance.

A hybrid GA-ant colony approach for exploring the relationship between IT and firm performance

Several studies were conducted during recent years on exploring the impact of Information Technology (IT) on the performance of the organisation. It is quite important to find a robust technique to identify the relationship between IT and organisational performance. A hybrid Genetic Algorithm (GA) Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) approach is proposed for data clustering. This is because of the need for the application of metaheurisitic algorithms parallel to deterministic approaches. This study discusses and analyses data from 90 companies in a unique supply chain. The data includes 26 indices about IT and 11 indices about performance. The companies are classified with respect to the IT and performance indices (indicators). Then, IT clusters and performance clusters are mapped to one another and, consequently, the relationship between them is explored. In general, the result shows that there is a linear relationship between the IT status and performance of the companies, with few exceptions. This is the first study which integrates ant colony approach and GA for exploring the relationship between IT and firm performance.

Planning for creativity and innovation in a global city: Sydney's Information Technology clusters in the context of the 2005 metropolitan strategy

This article connects recent evidence on the geographical characteristics of the IT sector in Sydney to contemporary metropolitan planning. Firstly, the article builds on recent research (Searle, G. and Pritchard, B. (2005) 'Industry clusters and Sydney's ITT sector: Northern Sydney as 'Australia's silicon valley'?', Australian Geographer, Vol. 36, pp.145-169) that critically examines the claim that the Northern Sydney region is Australia's Silicon Valley. Examination of this industry suggests that its expansion in Northern Sydney has been motivated primarily by the increasing centrality of advanced producer services within the high-order business sector. It is Sydney's attributes for multinational business, as opposed to the propulsive dynamics of local clustering per se which appears to explain the spatial concentration of these activities. Hence, it is argued that the urbanisation economies of Sydney are more important than the localisation economies of the IT sector which account for the growth of this sector in the city. Then, taking these arguments as a point of departure, the second half of the article examines how these arguments fit within the economic strategies for Sydney articulated in the 2005 Metropolitan Strategy, a planning document designed to provide the context for the city's medium-term growth. Through this discussion, key elements of the potential role that can be played by the IT sector in regional development policies to encourage creativity and innovation are revealed.

How does a cluster relocate across the border? The case of information technology cluster in the Taiwan–Suzhou region

Since the end of the Cold War, cross-border regions have proliferated at the borders of formal socialist countries, especially in China. Existing accounts of these emergences treat them either at the macro-level, focusing on political initiatives, or at the micro-level, with emphasis on social and economic relations. This paper uses the Taiwan–Suzhou cross-border region as a case study for suggesting a meso-level approach, arguing that as a result of continuous interactions between individual Taiwanese information technology firms and opportunity structures generated by the selective opening of the Chinese border, the formation of cross-border high-tech regions is shaped and determined at the level of the industrial system. The industrial system acts as a platform for coordination and cooperation between local elites and foreign investors and among individual firms within this system. The formation of the cross-border high-tech region thus involves the relocation and institutional re-embedding of industrial systems across the border, which has been accompanied by the systemic building of Taiwanese firms on the one hand, and the institutional innovation of Chinese local states on the other.

A spatial analysis of small‐ and medium‐sized information technology firms in Canada and the importance of local connections to institutions of higher education

As part of community/regional development policy, governments in Canada attempt to create conditions that stimulate the formation of high‐technology clusters and, in so doing, often encourage firm–university/college liaisons. Information technology (IT) is an important segment of the high‐technology sector, and small‐ and medium‐sized Canadian IT firms are disproportionately attracted to large metropolitan areas (with Toronto, Ottawa–Hull, Vancouver, Calgary, Montréal, Kitchener and Edmonton being the most noteworthy). A nearest neighbour analysis suggests that small‐ and medium‐sized IT firms are clustered within the metropolitan setting, and a nearest neighbour hierarchical spatial clustering technique demonstrates that intra‐urban IT agglomerations can be objectively identified. The linkages between small‐ and medium‐sized IT firms and higher education institutions are, on average, not strongly entrenched within Canada's IT culture, although many of these firms still connect with universities or colleges through co‐operative programs and other means of employee recruitment and via general networking with faculty members. Thus, governments may be able to support IT cluster formation by encouraging firm–university/college connections that centre on student participation.

Clusters and intercluster spillovers: their influence on the growth and survival of Canadian information technology firms

We estimate the effects of clustering on the growth and survival of information technology (IT) firms in Canada, after controlling for firm-specific factors that might determine growth rates and survival. The results suggest that, in general, agglomeration at the regional and metropolitan levels does not influence growth rates or survival probability. However, we do find evidence that firms located in the Toronto CMA, and more specifically those located in a relatively small area within the Toronto CMA (defined by postal codes) experience faster growth. Moreover, we find that the greater the distance of other firms from these postal codes, the lower are their growth rates. In other words, the impact of clustering on growth performance is highly localized, at least for our sample period and firms. We find some limited evidence that proximity to US IT clusters has a positive effect on growth rates of Canadian IT firms. Finally, we find only very limited survivorship impacts related to location. On balance, our results suggest that the Canadian economy is too small to support many diversified clusters, and that policies directed at creating such diversity are likely to be misplaced.

Government Policies with respect to an Information Technology Cluster in Bangalore, India

The southern states in India have developed a strong reputation as a source of software development services, with Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, having the strongest reputation of all. This article focuses on the following issue: what determines the competitiveness of an information technology (IT) cluster? The following questions will be addressed: How did Bangalore become an IT cluster? What is the role of the external environment and, in particular, of the national, state and local governments for the development of this IT cluster? Will the Bangalore cluster benefit or suffer from the present recession in the IT industry in the US? Finally, what explains the success of an IT cluster?

On Patents, R & D, and the Stock Market Rate of Return

Empirical work on the causes and effects of inventive activity has had difficulty in finding measures that can indicate when and where changes in either inventive inputs or inventive output have occurred. The recent computerization of the U.S. Patent Office's data base may prove helpful in this context, but there is the problem that a priori we do not know the relationships between patent applications and economically meaningful measures of these inputs and outputs. To help solve this problem, this paper investigates the dynamic relationships among the number of successful patent applications of firms, a measure of the firm's investment in inventive activity (its R & D expenditures), and an indicator of its inventive output (the stock market value of the firm). (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)