Developing a Technology Intelligence Strategy to Access Knowledge of Innovation Clusters

Current times are characterised by a knowledge-based economy and fast technological change. In this difficult environment, companies compete to maintain a relevant position through innovation. In response to these challenges, many companies are currently adopting an open approach to innovation, pursuing innovation by combining internal and external resources. Technology intelligence (TI) activities support the implementation of open innovation with the systematic capture and delivery of information about threats and opportunities arising from new developments in science and technology. A popular choice for TI is to establish ‘listening posts' in areas of intense innovative activities, for example in regional clusters where technical information flows are known to be particularly intensive. In fact, literature suggests that in clusters vertical interactions along the value chain and horizontal interactions between competing companies help companies to capture the regional market trends and preferences and take relevant decisions concerning their future technological focus. As companies cannot afford to setup a technology outpost in every single geographic area where innovation and technological development are intense and relevant, they need to develop a TI strategy to explore remotely the science and technology that is being developed across long geographic distances. This chapter illustrates through a detailed case study of Kodak European Research (KER), how companies can organise and implement TI activities to leverage the knowledge and existence of regional clusters. It integrates two domains of research on TI and regional clusters, giving insights into how TI activities are strongly influenced by location. Through the experience of KER, this chapter explores i) the pros and cons of becoming embedded within a cluster to take part in the ‘local buzz'; ii) the strategy to access knowledge of other clusters; iii) the communication strategy to manage the TI activity within and outside of the cluster.

[1]  André Torre,et al.  Proximity and Localization , 2005 .

[2]  A. Chandler,et al.  Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 , 1994 .

[3]  Mark S. Granovetter.  T H E S T R E N G T H O F WEAK TIES: A NETWORK THEORY REVISITED , 1983 .

[4]  Robert Huggins,et al.  The Evolution of Knowledge Clusters , 2008 .

[5]  E. Garnsey,et al.  High‐technology clustering through spin‐out and attraction: The Cambridge case , 2005 .

[6]  R. Burt.  The Social Structure of Competition , 2004 .

[7]  A. Malmberg,et al.  Localized learning revisited , 2006 .

[8]  F. Swierczek,et al.  Learning and its impact on the performance of manufacturing joint ventures in developing countries , 2004 .

[9]  Oliver Gassmann,et al.  Insourcing Creativity with Listening Posts in Decentralized Firms , 2004 .

[10]  C. Karlsson.  Handbook of Research on Cluster Theory , 2010 .

[11]  Steven B. Andrews,et al.  Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition , 1995, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[12]  AnnaLee Saxenian,et al.  Coevolution and coordination: a systemic analysis of the Taiwanese information technology industry , 2007 .

[13]  Gianni Lorenzoni,et al.  The firms that feed industrial districts: A return to the Italian source , 1999 .

[14]  P. Savioz,et al.  Strategic forecast tool for SMEs: how the opportunity landscape interacts with business strategy to anticipate technological trends , 2002 .

[15]  H. Bathelt.  Knowledge-based Clusters: Regional Multiplier Models and the Role of ‘Buzz’ and ‘Pipelines’ , 2008 .

[16]  Jose Albors-Garrigos,et al.  Do clusters capabilities matter? An empirical application of the resource-based view in clusters , 2007 .

[17]  Eckhard Lichtenthaler,et al.  Technology Intelligence Processes in Leading European and North American Multinationals , 2004 .

[18]  B. Preissl,et al.  The Dynamics of Clusters and Innovation , 2003 .

[19]  Thomas J. Allen,et al.  Managing the flow of technology: technology transfer and the dissemination of technological informat , 1977 .

[20]  Paul Israel,et al.  The Sources of Innovation , 1990 .

[21]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[22]  Anders Malmberg,et al.  Building global knowledge pipelines: The role of temporary clusters , 2006 .

[23]  A. Markusen.  Sticky Places in Slippery Space: A Typology of Industrial Districts* , 1996 .

[24]  R. Martin,et al.  Deconstructing clusters: chaotic concept or policy panacea? , 2003 .

[25]  H. Bathelt.  Cluster Relations in the Media Industry: Exploring the 'Distanced Neighbour' Paradox in Leipzig , 2005 .

[26]  A. Rallet.  L'économie de proximités , 2002 .

[27]  Pascal Savioz,et al.  Technology Intelligence System: Benefits and Roles of Top Management , 2004 .

[28]  Oliver Gassmann,et al.  Organisational frameworks for listening post activities , 2005 .

[29]  Martin Bell,et al.  When Micro Shapes the Meso: Learning Networks in a Chilean Wine Cluster , 2004 .

[30]  Anders Malmberg,et al.  What is global and what is local in knowledge-generating interaction? The case of the biotech cluster in Uppsala, Sweden , 2007 .

[31]  Meric S. Gertler,et al.  The Geography of Innovation: Regional Innovation Systems , 2006 .

[32]  Jean-Benoît Zimmermann,et al.  Économie de proximités , 2004 .

[33]  B. Kogut.  The network as knowledge : Generative rules and the emergence of structure , 2000 .

[34]  Christian Longhi,et al.  High technology locations and globalisation: converse paths, common processes , 2004, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[35]  D. Probert,et al.  The distributed innovation paradigm: evolution and dynamics , 2005 .

[36]  Eckhard Lichtenthaler,et al.  Technological change and the technology intelligence process: a case study , 2004 .

[37]  Robert Phaal,et al.  Technology Intelligence practice in UK technology-based companies , 2009, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[38]  Henry Chesbrough,et al.  Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology , 2003 .

[39]  Jan W. Rivkin,et al.  Complexity, Networks and Knowledge Flow , 2002 .

[40]  Jean-Benoit Zimmermann,et al.  Clusters in the Global Knowledge-based Economy: Knowledge Gatekeepers and Temporary Proximity , 2008 .

[41]  Douglas Bernhardt.  Perfectly legal competitor intelligence : how to get it, use it and profit from it , 1993 .

[42]  Frank Wilkinson,et al.  Collective Learning and Knowledge Development in the Evolution of Regional Clusters of High Technology SMEs in Europe , 1999 .

[43]  P. Ranganath Nayak,et al.  Product Juggernauts: How Companies Mobilize to Generate a Stream of Market Winners , 1995 .

[44]  Walter W. Powell,et al.  Knowledge Networks as Channels and Conduits: The Effects of Spillovers in the Boston Biotechnology Community , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[45]  David Probert,et al.  Developing a Technology Intelligence Strategy at Kodak European Research: Scan & Target , 2010 .

[46]  Peter Maskell,et al.  Towards a Knowledge‐based Theory of the Geographical Cluster , 2001 .

[47]  H. Bathelt,et al.  Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation , 2004 .

[48]  J. Fagerberg,et al.  The Oxford handbook of innovation , 2006 .

[49]  Stefano Breschi,et al.  Localised knowledge spillovers vs. innovative milieux: Knowledge “tacitness” reconsidered , 2001 .

[50]  Nunzia Carbonara,et al.  Innovation processes within geographical clusters: a cognitive approach , 2004 .

[51]  Richard C. Dorf,et al.  The Technology Management Handbook , 1998 .

[52]  Eckhard Lichtenthaler.  Third generation management of technology intelligence processes , 2003 .

[53]  W. Powell,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. , 1996 .

[54]  B. Kogut,et al.  Localization of Knowledge and the Mobility of Engineers in Regional Networks , 1999 .

[55]  Kelley A. Packalen,et al.  Organizational and Institutional Genesis: The Emergence of High-Tech Clusters in the Life Sciences , 2010 .

[56]  M. Castells.  Technopoles of the world , 1994 .

[57]  P. Cooke.  Global Bioregional Networks: A New Economic Geography of Bioscientific Knowledge , 2006 .

[58]  M. Feldman,et al.  R&D spillovers and the ge-ography of innovation and production , 1996 .

[59]  W. Powell,et al.  Networks, Propinquity, and Innovation in Knowledge-intensive Industries , 2009 .

[60]  Robert Phaal,et al.  A toolbox of elements to build Technology Intelligence systems , 2009, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[61]  F. Moulaert,et al.  Territorial Innovation Models: A Critical Survey , 2003 .

[62]  A. Venables,et al.  Buzz: face-to-face contact and the urban economy , 2004 .

[63]  Antonio Capaldo.  Network Structure and Innovation: The Leveraging of a Dual Network as a Distinctive Relational Capability , 2006 .

[64]  Bart Nooteboom,et al.  Innovation, Learning and Cluster Dynamics , 2004 .

[65]  Eckhard Lichtenthaler.  Managing technology intelligence processes in situations of radical technological change , 2007 .

[66]  A. Marshall.  Principles of Economics , .

[67]  H. Arman,et al.  Combining Methods in the Technology Intelligence Process: Application in an Aerospace Manufacturing Firm , 2010 .

[68]  Frank Wilkinson,et al.  High-technology clusters, networking and collective learning in Europe , 2000 .

[69]  E. Garnsey,et al.  The Cambridge High Tech Cluster: Resilience and Response to Cyclical Trends , 2009 .

[70]  Bengt-Åke Lundvall,et al.  National Systems of Innovation: towards a theory of innovation and interactive learning London: Pint , 1995 .

[71]  Christian Longhi,et al.  Gatekeepers of Knowledge versus Platforms of Knowledge: From Potential to Realized Absorptive Capacity , 2008 .

[72]  Robert Phaal,et al.  A conceptual model for technology intelligence , 2006 .

[73]  R. Rohrbeck.  Harnessing a Network of Experts for Competitive Advantage: Technology Scouting in the ICT Industry , 2010 .

[74]  G. Slowinski,et al.  Harnessing External Technology for Innovation , 2006 .

[75]  Jose Albors-Garrigos,et al.  Local knowledge domains and the role of MNE affiliates in bridging and complementing a cluster's knowledge , 2008 .

[76]  Eckhard Lichtenthaler,et al.  Technology intelligence: identification of technological opportunities and threats by firms , 2006 .

[77]  Eckhard Lichtenthaler,et al.  The choice of technology intelligence methods in multinationals: towards a contingency approach , 2005, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[78]  Pascal Savioz,et al.  Technology intelligence systems: practices and models for large, medium-sized and start-up companies , 2006 .