The combination of local and global knowledge in clustering processes: The role of public-private interaction

This thesis investigates the “missing link” between knowledge flows dynamics and clustering processes in a public-private interaction perspective. These topics are deeply interrelated, and the relationship between clustering and knowledge has attracted significant scholarly attention. In spite of this, new trends and mechanisms have recently emerged and have brought up open questions that deserve further attention as the conditions, mechanisms, and effects of knowledge sharing are under-explored in the light of the challenges and opportunities of pervasive processes as globalization and digitization. Therefore, responding to the recent calls for further research on both knowledge dynamics for business clusters and networks and public-private interaction mechanisms, this thesis aims to enhance our understanding of how knowledge flows influence and provoke changes in clustering processes. In particular, of the interaction processes for knowledge recombining within clusters, by taking a public-private interaction perspective. The Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) approach is adopted as theoretical and analytical framework to integrate different aspects of the key concepts under investigation. Adopting a business network perspective on clustering processes allows investigating interaction along the three dimensions of actors, activities, and resources. This dissertation takes the form of a collection of papers and it is structured into five chapters. Chapter I introduces the topics and main objectives of the research, it outlines its structure, develops the theoretical framework, and describes methodological considerations. Chapter II presents a conceptual review paper on public-private interaction, aimed at providing a state-of-the-art through a systematic literature review of recent contributions on the topic in IMP research and an outline of possible future lines of investigations. Chapter III and Chapter IV relate to the two empirical investigations conducted. Chapter III introduces a qualitative case study on the diffusion of Industry 4.0-related knowledge in the context of the Italian industrial districts of Pesaro, aimed to examine the dissemination of I4.0 knowledge, exploring the main mechanisms for its spreading and highlighting the main factors shaping such processes. Chapter IV presents and discusses a case study on a Swedish formal cluster initiative in supporting small firms’ internationalization processes. By taking a public-private interaction perspective, it aims at providing an understanding of how international business knowledge is exchanged within an internationalization project. The final chapter (Chapter V) summarizes the findings of the chapters and discusses them in relation to each other, and in relation to the overarching objectives of the dissertation. Conclusive remarks are outlined, as well as managerial and policy implications. Finally, limitations of the study are pointed out and an agenda for future research is suggested. Indeed, the peculiarities of knowledge flows, clustering processes, and public-private interaction are disentangled in a review chapter and two empirical analyses dealing with different aspects of this phenomenon. The study of such complex interaction contributes to the literature on interrelated grounds: i) to the literature on districts and clusters, by presenting key drivers of renewals as emerging local learning processes and collective action; ii) to the IMP tradition, by extending the literature on networks and drawing attention to the multiplicity of networks in which clustering processes are embedded and how they affect and are affected by their development; iii) on knowledge flow dynamics, by showing how the complexity of knowledge has led to a re-evaluation and integration of knowledge sharing activities in the contexts of innovation and internationalization and by lifting out emerging collective intentionality.