LEARNING, GLOBALIZATION, AND THE ELECTRONICS CLUSTER IN HORTEN: DISCUSSING THE LOCAL BUZZ - GLOBAL PIPELINE ARGUMENT

Agder University College, Grooseveien 36, 4876 Norway and Step-Group, Centre for innovation studies, SINTEF Technology Management, Hammersborg Torg 3, 0179 Oslo, Norway. Phone: +4737253353, fax: +4737253181 arne.Isaksen@hia.no Draft, 12.05.2003 This paper aims to contribute to the debate about the process of knowledge creation and innovation in regional clusters by considering the usefulness of the ‘local buzz – global pipeline approach’ in the case of the electronics cluster in Horten, Norway. The approach emphasizes that a cluster’s continued economic success is based both on local interaction, or the cluster’s buzz, and on interaction through trans-local pipelines. The paper argues that the approach, as drawn up by Bathelt, Malmberg and Maskell (2002), provides a helpful insight into how innovation and learning take place in the electronics cluster. However, in the case of Horten the approach can fruitfully be supplemented with approaches focusing on internal knowledge creation and firms’ intellectual capital, on persons’ interaction in national business communities, and on firms’ involvement in global value chains. Keywords: Industrial clustering, local learning, technology transfer, global value chains, the electronics industry