Knowledge Creation in Case of Clusters

In the era of globalization, organizations in both developed and developing countries tend to take a new approach cooperation and collaboration. The access to international and local knowledge has become fundamental in the new economy. In the theory of organizational economics, organizations are regarded as open systems that process information to be turned into profits (Cook, 2007). It means that in the global knowledge economy, knowledge becomes more and more essential and necessary. Effective knowledge sharing is the most important target for firms and other organizations to look for (Carayannis, Wang, 2008). Clusters refer to a geographic area cointaining a number of companies, organizations and intermediate agencies. They are usually formed and developed following the linkages in a value chain (OECD, 1999) and imply cooperation, trust and distributed knowledge. Organizations in a well developed cluster tend to search for external knowledge and R&D partners within the cluster FORMED (Carayannis, Wang, 2008). Therefore, it can be assumed that clusters as a type of organizational networks are conducive to creation of inter-firm knowledge and skill development, which shall be discussed further on within this chapter.