Innovation in Clusters

Innovation in Clusters

by Estelle Vallier
Released December 2021
Publisher(s): Wiley-ISTE
ISBN: 9781786306258

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Book description

Forged at the heart of international political bodies by expert researchers, the innovation cluster concept has been incorporated into most public policies in industrialized countries. Based largely on the ideas behind the success of Silicon Valley, several imitative attempts have been made to geographically group laboratories, companies and training in particular fields in order to generate “synergies” between science and industry.
In its first part, Innovation in Clusters analyzes the infatuation with the system of clusters that is integral to innovative policies by analyzing its socio historical context, its revival in management and its worldwide expansion, looking at a French example at a local level. In its second part, the book explores a specialized biotechnology cluster dating back to the end of the 1990s. The sociological survey conducted twenty years later sheds a different light on the dynamics and relationships between laboratories and companies, contradicting the commonly held belief that innovation is made possible by geographical proximity.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Foreword
  5. Introduction
    1. I.1. Innovation policies and the clustering process
    2. I.2. The cooperation mechanism in a biocluster context: from concept to reality
    3. I.3. Acknowledgements
  6. PART 1 Persistence and Renewal of the Cluster Concept in Contemporary Innovation Policies
    1. 1 From Industrial Districts to Knowledge Valleys: the Legacy of the Cluster
      1. 1.1. The industrial district: the oldest ancestor of the cluster
      2. 1.2. Spatial concentrations of technological activities
      3. 1.3. The valleys of knowledge: interindividual relations as a source of innovation
    2. 2 The Management Roots of the Cluster and Its Worldwide Dissemination
      1. 2.1. An economic and management concept destined to become a public action mechanism
      2. 2.2. Global dissemination of good clustering practices
      3. 2.3. The French legislative framework from the 1980s to the 2010s: a favored coming together of science and industry
    3. 3 The Cluster Imaginary: Tools, Local Narrative and Promise
      1. 3.1. Performative instruments: benchmarking, territorial marketing, visual instrumentation
      2. 3.2. The construction of a narrative
      3. 3.3. Promises of innovation and employment at the territorial level
  7. PART 2 Prevented Synergies: the Case of a Biotechnology Cluster
    1. 4 Networking Systems: Repeated but Hindered Initiatives
      1. 4.1. Scientific and industrial administration: establishing a recurrent event
      2. 4.2. Sharing a technology platform: mutualization or collaboration?
      3. 4.3. The institutionalization of conviviality: “la vie de site”
    2. 5 Scientific Competition and Economic Competition: Social Fields Spanned by Internal Struggles
      1. 5.1. Asynchronous organizations and work rhythms
      2. 5.2. A scientific field built from struggle and precarity
      3. 5.3. An unstable relationship between economic development and industrial secrets for companies
    3. 6 The Avoided Cooperation
      1. 6.1. A patchy local network
      2. 6.2. Cooperation prevented by paradoxical demands
      3. 6.3. Avoidance strategies
  8. Conclusion
  9. References
  10. Index
  11. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Innovation in Clusters
  • Author(s): Estelle Vallier
  • Release date: December 2021
  • Publisher(s): Wiley-ISTE
  • ISBN: 9781786306258