Driving forces of industrial clusters towards innovative clusters: accelerating the innovation process. Issue 2 (3rd May 2016) - Xie, X.M.
Abstract : In recent years, industrial cluster innovation has received considerable attention from economists and industrial analysts. Currently, innovation is a source of competitive advantage for firms and interest in identifying its driving forces has increased from the perspective of industrial clusters. In this paper, we explore the innovation process of industrial cluster towards innovative clusters in developing countries. Based on prior studies, we developed a driving forces model incorporating three main factors – cluster resources, cluster networks, and cluster environment – to simulate and analyse industrial cluster innovation using the Cellular Automata method. Our findings validate the positive relationships between our three factors and industrial cluster innovation. These findings reveal that firms with more resources, higher knowledge sharing, and better networking accelerate their innovation process more effectively. Beyond the immediate implications of our findings, we highlight policy recommendations and implications to improve practitioners' capabilities related to industrial cluster innovation.