Territorial innovation dynamics and integration of SMEs into the collaborative innovation projects of French competitiveness poles: the underlying mechanisms

Geographical clusters are nowadays considered as a relevant factor for competitiveness, thanks to their innovative capabilities. In this context, public policies based on this approach are flourishing all over the world. The French “Pole of competitiveness” (PoC) policy (Politique des pôles de compétitivité) is one of these initiatives. It is the new French industrial policy aiming at reinforcing the specializations of the economy and the attractiveness of territories by fostering the development of R&D projects, bringing together multinationals, universities, and particularly Small-Middle-Sized-Enterprises (SMEs). Precisely, significant research suggests that in order to innovate SMEs need to cooperate and they are also vital for the functioning, and survival of innovative milieux. Consequently, their integration is a key issue for French PoC' success. However, the call for projects shows that despite their efforts, French Poles of Competitiveness are not totally successful: a gap remains especially between the massive financial investments helping SMEs innovate and the expected results. Yet, this issue is only analysed by focusing on intrinsic weaknesses of SMEs' management or on the complexities of existing support programmes supporting SMEs' innovation. This is insufficient. Innovation dynamics are different from a cluster to another and many failures of innovation policies come from the lack of identification of these specificities. Therefore, this paper aims are threefold: it aims at introducing the French PoC, indeed, the French PoC policy is the main new policy gathering all the nation's innovation programmes. But few papers are explaining how they work. It aims at identifying the territorial innovation dynamics within PoC and how they work, and then combine this analysis with the intrinsic features of SMEs management, to better understand how they get involved in these dynamics. It finally aims at presenting the preliminary results of the first stage of research: the analysis of a specific French PoC, the “Secured Communicating Solutions”(SCS) PoC as well as the further research questions they raise for the next stage of research.clusters, interaction, knowledge management, SMEs

Book review on: Max Boisot, Ian MacMillan, and Keyong Seok Han, Explorations in Information Space: Knowledge, Actors, and Firms, 2007, Oxford University Press,

Much has been written about knowledge management and value creation. But a real theoretical framework for the creation and the distribution of knowledge is lacking in much of the work done so far.In fact, with the rise of the knowledge economy, economic value is increasingly seen as relying on intangible assets rather than physical assets. Strategies for managing knowledge thus become of central concern. This is one of the reasons why "knowledge" has been so crucial for economic and management fields over the last two decades. But since "knowledge" is not only bare data, or information, but rather the result of a process involving space and time, the nature of knowledge takes a strategic dimension. Across disciplines and functional borderlines, philosophers, economists, sociologists, organisational theorists as well as managers, have debated the nature of knowledge without a real theoretical consensus.This book is precisely concerned with this issue. It aims at providing a theoretical framework to explore the nature of relevant organisational knowledge within and between firms, and in any other social systems. The authors stress on the fact that current knowledge management approaches are mainly Information and Communication Technology driven, focusing on the application of tools, and considering knowledge as a stand-alone resource: something that can be commercialised, stocked, manipulated and defined with clear perimeters. In this book, the authors think knowledge as a value creating process, demonstrating that the knowledge management field lacks of a founding theory focused on the nature of knowledge and knowledge flows. It is, consequently, not possible to have a credible theory about how to manage knowledge in a firm without first developing a knowledge-based-theory of the firm.The two main goals of the book can be summarized as follows: Firstly, to build up the foundations of a theory for a conceptual framework centred on knowledge flows, which the authors call the Information Space or I-Space. Secondly, to connect the I-Space framework to the actual world by exposing the managerial implications deriving from the heterogeneous institutional structures that emerge from data processing strategies.Knowledge Management; Information-Space; Networks; Actors

Temporary Clusters and Knowledge Creation: The Case of Tourism@

With respect to the knowledge-based-view and management science, innovations contribute to a company's competitiveness. And for successful innovation process, companies need to share, create and combine their internal knowledge as well as managing their external relationships and opportunities. Consequently, it is widely accepted that clusters - systemic and local configurations - by supporting horizontal and vertical knowledge exchange could be a fundamental mean for innovation. However, the prolific literature on clusters analyse them only as durable and permanent entities. Yet, interestingly, some forms of temporary organizations as trade fairs, conventions and other professional gatherings, are similar to permanent clusters, but in a temporary, repeated and intensified form. Maskell, Bathelt and Malmberg (2004) even call them “temporary cluster” using the concept to define a short-lived hotspot of intense knowledge exchange, network building and idea generation. It gathers heterogeneous participants in the same spot enabling them to bring together their specific knowledge through intensive interactions. Nevertheless, to date, we observed that the literature focusing on temporary clusters is limited. Notwithstanding, it requires growing attention for management science. In fact, the literature existing on temporary clusters, had asserted that these transient events are important for companies to access markets and knowledge pools in different part of the world. Therefore we consider temporary clusters as a significant vector for the building of trans-local business relations in common situations of incomplete knowledge and uncertainty. Besides, temporary clusters help developing global knowledge pipelines to benefit from outside knowledge.In this context, the paper will analyze a specific empirical case of temporary organization related to the tourism industry. Two arguments support this choice. On the one hand, as stated by Maskell et al. (2005), ‘identifying, selecting, approaching and interacting with new partners is a tricky and costly process' and, we think, even more in the tourism industry. Indeed, the tourism industry is structured by dispersed activities in nature, time and space that need to be combined and assembled dynamically. On the other hand, the tourism industry has been one of the most innovative activities related to the development of ICT, almost 50% of the innovations in the e-commerce activity come from e-tourism or m-tourism. Therefore, the analysis of a temporary cluster dedicated to this ‘dispersed' activity is particularly relevant.The paper will thus focus on such an event called Tourism@. This major event gathers the main actors of e-tourism and is dedicated to the usages of ICT in the tourism industry. It appears as a unique international trade fair in Europe dedicated to start up innovative companies, high tech SMEs, academic research, as well as large multinationals. Tourism@' specificity lies in the fact that each year, since 2001, the event includes the organization of a competition rewarding projects for their creativity and commitment in developing and implementing either new technologies or new uses for the tourism industry. The projects involved in this competition (175 since 2001) will be the basic elements of the temporal database we have build, in which the nature of the projects is extensively described (nature of the firm, of the technology, of the team, capabilities implemented, level of innovation...). In order to analyze the evolution of innovative activities in e-tourism, the initial step will be to characterize the projects through three main features: the market they address, nature of the technology and their innovative intensity. The study reveals that, each year, a main technology or a main innovation in terms of uses emerges showing some kind of self organization. Then, two points of the case study will be examined: first, the evolution of the dominant technology over time, and secondly, the diffusion of the emerging technology. Therefrom, the empirical study will aim at analyzing if temporary proximity allows the different actors from tourism industry to set up or mobilize knowledge and social links without requiring durable co-location. Furthermore, it will aim at identifying if, in a dynamic context of annual event, the repeated face to face temporary relations can result in trust and durable cooperation between different organizations. It might be expected that Tourism@ trade fair, in the role of a temporary cluster, enables to develop or implement innovative solutions, supports technology transfers and backs the creation of new markets as well as the fostering of horizontal and vertical relations between stakeholders.The paper is structured as follows. First section will investigate the theory field of temporary clusters and question in what extent a temporary cluster can be considered as a specific temporary organization regarding the interactions it support that lead to knowledge creation. Section two will present the Tourism@ case study; the methodology used and will develop the statistical analysis of the database. Lastly, the third section will be dedicated to the discussion of temporary clusters as a specific form of inter-firm organization that allows intensive exchange of knowledge.Knowledge creation; Temporary cluster; Tourism; Technological innovation

The micro processes underlying small firms'integration into territorial innovation dynamics - a knowledge based perspective

The paper is concerned with the process of SMEs' insertion into innovation projects within regional clusters. The objective is to contribute to a better understanding of this process by examining the underlying mechanisms of territorial innovation dynamics. A particular attention is given to the interplay between the features of territorial dynamics of innovation identified, and SMEs' capacity to participate to collaborative innovation projects. In this perspective, the article analyse the front-end process of territorial inter-organizational innovation, the early stage during which partners negotiate and establish collaborative innovation projects. Rather than investigating how clusters facilitate the access to new resources and knowledge, the crucial question here is how clusters allow the combination of different component of knowledge among heterogeneous actors. First, our findings reveal the key underlying role of architectural knowledge in local innovation processes. Second, they suggest that the nature of architectural knowledge inside the cluster influences the capacity and the motivation of SMEs to participate to local innovation projects. These findings contribute to theory by developing a grounded model of territorial dynamics of innovation and of SMEs integration into localised innovation projectsclusters; SMEs; architectural innovation; knowledge; local innovation projects

Territorial innovation dynamics: a knowledge based perspective

A great deal of studies has focused on the role played by geographical location on the emergence and the building of localised learning capacities (Maskell, Malmberg, 1999). In this perspective, empirical studies have demonstrated that innovation dynamics of clusters results from the quality of interactions and coordination inside the cluster as well as interactions with external, often global, networks. In this context, knowledge exchange between firms and institutions are claimed to be the main drivers of spatial agglomeration (Canals et al, 2008). Hence, cluster policies have followed the main idea that geographic proximity facilitates collective innovation in so far as firms can capture knowledge externalities more easily. This idea is in fact very attractive but contains some limits (Suire et Vicente, 2007): if some clusters are successful others seem to decline. Therefore, in order to understand the territorial dynamics of clusters, the analysis of the specific nature of knowledge and information flows within a cluster is crucial. The objective of the paper is to enhance the analysis of the role of cognitive and relational dimensions of interactions on territorial dynamics of innovation. We focus on the key sub process of innovation: knowledge creation, which is above all a social process based on two key complex social mechanisms: the exchange and the combination of knowledge (Nahapiet and Goshal, 1996). We suggest building a theoretical framework that hinges on these two key mechanisms. In this perspective, we mobilise Boisot's I-Space model (Boisot, 1998) for the diffusion and exchange of knowledge and suggest completing the model by introducing the concept of architectural knowledge (Henderson and Clark, 1990) so as to take the complexity of the combination process into consideration. This analysis is conducted through the illustrative analysis of three different case studies. We will draw upon the case of Aerospace Valley Pole of Competitiveness (PoC), The Secured Communicating Solutions PoC, and Fabelor Competence Cluster. The cases show that the existence of architectural knowledge is pivotal to territorial innovation.Architectural Knowledge, I-Space Model, Territorial Innovation, Geographical Clusters, Knowledge Management

Temporary Clusters and Knowledge Creation: The Case of Tourism@

International audienceWith respect to the knowledge-based-view and management science, innovations contribute to a company's competitiveness. And for successful innovation process, companies need to share, create and combine their internal knowledge as well as managing their external relationships and opportunities. Consequently, it is widely accepted that clusters - systemic and local configurations - by supporting horizontal and vertical knowledge exchange could be a fundamental mean for innovation. <br />However, the prolific literature on clusters analyse them only as durable and permanent entities. Yet, interestingly, some forms of temporary organizations as trade fairs, conventions and other professional gatherings, are similar to permanent clusters, but in a temporary, repeated and intensified form. Maskell, Bathelt and Malmberg (2004) even call them “temporary cluster” using the concept to define a short-lived hotspot of intense knowledge exchange, network building and idea generation. It gathers heterogeneous participants in the same spot enabling them to bring together their specific knowledge through intensive interactions. <br />Nevertheless, to date, we observed that the literature focusing on temporary clusters is limited. Notwithstanding, it requires growing attention for management science. In fact, the literature existing on temporary clusters, had asserted that these transient events are important for companies to access markets and knowledge pools in different part of the world. Therefore we consider temporary clusters as a significant vector for the building of trans-local business relations in common situations of incomplete knowledge and uncertainty. Besides, temporary clusters help developing global knowledge pipelines to benefit from outside knowledge.<br /><br />In this context, the paper will analyze a specific empirical case of temporary organization related to the tourism industry. Two arguments support this choice. On the one hand, as stated by Maskell et al. (2005), ‘identifying, selecting, approaching and interacting with new partners is a tricky and costly process' and, we think, even more in the tourism industry. Indeed, the tourism industry is structured by dispersed activities in nature, time and space that need to be combined and assembled dynamically. On the other hand, the tourism industry has been one of the most innovative activities related to the development of ICT, almost 50% of the innovations in the e-commerce activity come from e-tourism or m-tourism. <br />Therefore, the analysis of a temporary cluster dedicated to this ‘dispersed' activity is particularly relevant.<br />The paper will thus focus on such an event called Tourism@. This major event gathers the main actors of e-tourism and is dedicated to the usages of ICT in the tourism industry. It appears as a unique international trade fair in Europe dedicated to start up innovative companies, high tech SMEs, academic research, as well as large multinationals. Tourism@' specificity lies in the fact that each year, since 2001, the event includes the organization of a competition rewarding projects for their creativity and commitment in developing and implementing either new technologies or new uses for the tourism industry. <br />The projects involved in this competition (175 since 2001) will be the basic elements of the temporal database we have build, in which the nature of the projects is extensively described (nature of the firm, of the technology, of the team, capabilities implemented, level of innovation...). In order to analyze the evolution of innovative activities in e-tourism, the initial step will be to characterize the projects through three main features: the market they address, nature of the technology and their innovative intensity. The study reveals that, each year, a main technology or a main innovation in terms of uses emerges showing some kind of self organization. Then, two points of the case study will be examined: first, the evolution of the dominant technology over time, and secondly, the diffusion of the emerging technology. <br />Therefrom, the empirical study will aim at analyzing if temporary proximity allows the different actors from tourism industry to set up or mobilize knowledge and social links without requiring durable co-location. Furthermore, it will aim at identifying if, in a dynamic context of annual event, the repeated face to face temporary relations can result in trust and durable cooperation between different organizations. It might be expected that Tourism@ trade fair, in the role of a temporary cluster, enables to develop or implement innovative solutions, supports technology transfers and backs the creation of new markets as well as the fostering of horizontal and vertical relations between stakeholders.<br /><br />The paper is structured as follows. First section will investigate the theory field of temporary clusters and question in what extent a temporary cluster can be considered as a specific temporary organization regarding the interactions it support that lead to knowledge creation. Section two will present the Tourism@ case study; the methodology used and will develop the statistical analysis of the database. Lastly, the third section will be dedicated to the discussion of temporary clusters as a specific form of inter-firm organization that allows intensive exchange of knowledge

Clusters et stratégies de clusters : le cas du pôle de compétitivité « solutions communicantes sécurisées »

Les stratégies de clusters sont aujourd’hui devenues les modalités privilégiées de la mise en œuvre des politiques publiques. Cet article s’articule autour d’une modalité française de mise en application de ces stratégies, les « pôles de compétitivité ». Il a pour but d’éclairer le fonctionnement d’un pôle de compétitivité à travers l’analyse des dynamiques territoriales en jeu. L’analyse empirique qui le sous-tend se focalise sur un pôle spécifique : le pôle « Solutions communicantes sécurisées » localisé en Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Elle met en évidence l’impact des configurations d’interactions au sein d’un territoire pour comprendre les politiques territoriales d’innovation.Cluster strategies have turned to be one of the main strategies implemented by public policies for the development of national economies all around the world. The aim of this article is to shed light on the French implementation of these strategies, the « poles of competitiveness ». The empirical analysis links the cluster concept to the policy implemented thanks to a case study focusing on a specific pole of competitiveness, « Secure Communicating Solutions » located in the French Riviera Provence – Côte d’Azur Region. The results highlight the necessity to consider territorial configurations of interactions, in order to improve the understanding, and the evaluation of regional innovation policies

US Cancer Centers of Excellence Strategies for Increased Inclusion of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Clinical Trials

PURPOSE:: Participation of racial and ethnic minority groups (REMGs) in cancer trials is disproportionately low despite a high prevalence of certain cancers in REMG populations. We aimed to identify notable practices used by leading US cancer centers that facilitate REMG participation in cancer trials. METHODS:: The National Minority Quality Forum and Sustainable Healthy Communities Diverse Cancer Communities Working Group developed criteria by which to identify eligible US cancer centers-REMGs comprise 10% or more of the catchment area; a 10% to 50% yearly accrual rate of REMGs in cancer trials; and the presence of formal community outreach and diversity enrollment programs. Cancer center leaders were interviewed to ascertain notable practices that facilitate REMG accrual in clinical trials. RESULTS:: Eight cancer centers that met the Communities Working Group criteria were invited to participate in in-depth interviews. Notable strategies for increased REMG accrual to cancer trials were reported across five broad themes: commitment and center leadership, investigator training and mentoring, community engagement, patient engagement, and operational practices. Specific notable practices included increased engagement of health care professionals, the presence of formal processes for obtaining REMG patient/caregiver input on research projects, and engagement of community groups to drive REMG participation. Centers also reported an increase in the allocation of resources to improving health disparities and increased dedication of research staff to REMG engagement. CONCLUSION:: We have identified notable practices that facilitate increased participation of REMGs in cancer trials. Wide implementation of such strategies across cancer centers is essential to ensure that all populations benefit from advances in an era of increasingly personalized treatment of cancer