The Handbook of Global Science, Technology, and Innovation

Chapter 10Clusters and Global Innovation: The Role of Connectedness and Connectivity

Mark Lorenzen and Ram Mudambi

Introduction¹

Pointing to the continued role of geographical clusters ² (agglomerations of specialized economic activity) in innovation processes, economic geographers have been a pervasive voice of dissent from the last decades’ claims that the world is becoming “flat” (Iammarino and McCann, this volume, Chapter 14). Concomitantly, international business scholars have also paid attention to clusters, focusing on multinational enterprises (MNEs) and how these span geographical distance in order to search for new markets, resources, and innovation opportunities, and reaching the same conclusion (Ghemawat 2007). Now, the two disciplines are converging around an understanding of cluster connectedness (the quantitative volume of a cluster’s global connections) and connectivity (the nature and scope of these global connections). This nascent theoretical framework can address some pertinent questions related to global science, technology, and innovation. For instance, why do some clusters benefit more than others from being integrated in the global economy? More specifically, what makes particular clusters able to leverage their outward trade and collaboration to catch up to global technological frontiers or even become global technological leaders – and what determines how the fruits of such innovation are distributed among individuals and organizations in these clusters? ...