Innovation in Clusters. Estelle Vallier

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Innovation in Clusters - Estelle Vallier


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some of the literature on technopoles, in addition to showing that the accumulation of all these factors does not necessarily guarantee innovation performance (Castells and Hall 1994; Cooke 2001), questions the artificiality of these spaces and the consequences for technopolitan workers. A detour through Japan and the work of Sheridan Tatsuno demonstrate the artificial dimension of the creation ex nihilo of the Tsukuba technopole (also studied by Castells and Hall):

      These critical comments on the artificiality of the technopole as a means of creating innovation spaces in areas that are, we might say, technology-free, occur early in the literature, but are still the minority view. Most of the literature on technopoles provides us with information on the mechanisms put in place, usually by public bodies, to generate a local culture, an innovation-producing environment. By highlighting a series of factors conducive to the creation of innovation, it differs from the literature on innovative environments, which seeks to determine how the “environment” is likely to innovate on the basis of the existing fabric (and in particular on the basis of a long-standing local culture, the history of the actors involved, etc.).

      1.2.2. A spontaneous and innovative environment conducive to a “technological atmosphere”?

      One of the best known examples is the study of the Jura Arc (Maillat et al. 1992), which analyzes the transition from an industrial district centered on the watchmaking industry to a technological district focused on microtechnology. In this transformation, the role of the environment is highlighted insofar as innovation has taken place on the basis of the existing fabric: a shift from mechanical to electronic skills, the gradual integration of electronic products from watchmaking into printed circuit components, etc. (Pfister and Nemeti 1995, p. 29). In this regard, Benko tells us that innovative enterprises do not pre-exist in local environments, but are secreted by them (Benko 2007). Gradually, local training courses are adjusting the content of their teaching to this reconversion, such as the Lausanne Polytechnic, the Swiss Laboratory for Watchmaking Research and the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology. This adjustment is also favored by the environment, that is, the local industrial culture and the mobility of people on the labor market.

      While Marshall spoke of an industrial atmosphere in his works on the district, theories on the environment tend to show that a technological atmosphere conducive to innovation can exist in some fashion within a territory. Among these works on the concentration of technological activities, divergences appear on the relevant spatial scale of such systems: from very localized business parks (Bernardy and Boisgontier 1988) to regional innovation systems (Cooke 2001) and urban innovation systems (Grossetti 2001).

      Ultimately, all of these configurations can be understood according to the concept of “local innovation systems” (Gilly and Grossetti 1993), namely:

      A set of organizations (companies, research centers, universities, etc.) and individuals producing technological innovation on the basis of regular research and development activities within a given area (Grossetti 1995, p. 4).

      The 1980s were therefore conducive to the research into the phenomenon of concentration of technological activities by social scientists, who linked it to the transition from industrial to cognitive capitalism.

      1.2.3. The era of cognitive capitalism: the race for creativity of individuals and territories

      Just as some observers attributed the emergence of industrial districts to a broader economic paradigm shift, some literature sees the changes of the 1970s and 1980s as a shift from industrial to cognitive capitalism, that is:

      In this new form of capitalism, the cognitive and intellectual dimension of work becomes dominant, and the central issues of capital development and some forms of property development are directly related to the transformation of knowledge into a fictitious commodity (Vercellone 2008, p. 72).

      In addition, in the early 1990s, there was a rapid spread of management theories from across the Atlantic, which developed a reading of the territory in terms of competition. They observed the effects of centripetal forces of agglomeration and at the same time centrifugal forces of international activities. Krugman was particularly interested in the differences between territories based on the positive externalities of agglomeration (Krugman 1991). At the same time, and in the same vein, Michael Porter developed the principle of


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