INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS AND THE EVOLUTION OF THEIR KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS: BACK AGAIN TO CHILE

Scholars on industrial clusters and networks have recently called for more research on networksi?½ change over time. This paper contributes to a further step along that path. It uses micro-level data based on the execution of a pair of identical studies in the same wine cluster in Chile in years 2002 and 2006. Through the collection of social network data, it explores the role of a set of social mechanisms to explain the change in the cluster knowledge system. Two results are worth noting. First, in line with other network studies, the persistence of firms in some cognitive positions/roles can be explained by means of the conventional mechanisms of social network formation, namely homophily, reciprocity and transitivity. Second, however, we find these mechanisms not to work when firms have weak knowledge bases (i.e. the thresholding-effect). Hence, firms with a level of knowledge bases below a minimum threshold persist being completely cast out of the cluster knowledge system (and in some cases even exit the cluster), even if they are geographically proximate to other i?½above-thethresholdi?½ firms. This open ups new questions about the role of clusters and their social mechanisms for learning and innovation.

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