Policy Induced Innovation Networks: The Case of the German “Leading-Edge Cluster Competition”

Uwe Cantner, Holger Graf and Susanne Hinzmann ()
Additional contact information
Susanne Hinzmann: Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Chapter Chapter 18 in The Geography of Networks and R&D Collaborations, 2013, pp 335-352 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The last decades saw a pronounced shift in innovation policy in Germany and many other countries towards increased funding of cooperative R&D. Over the last years, competitions between regional initiatives pushed this trend even further by adding a regional perspective, by increasing the scope of funding, and by fostering interaction between a large number of actors. In 2007 the German ministry for education and research (BMBF) started the Leading-Edge Cluster Competition (Spitzencluster-Wettbewerb) in which 15 clusters were selected in three waves (2008, 2010, 2012) and are funded for a 5-year period with up to 40 million Euro each. Our paper presents selected results regarding the influence of government funding on cooperation networks within four of the clusters that were successful in the first wave of the Leading-Edge Cluster Competition. More specifically, we analyse the extent of policy influence on the network of most important cooperation partners, its geographic reach, and the changes of network structure in general. Our empirical analysis is based on original data that was collected in 2011 with cluster actors (firms and public research) who received government funding. Our results indicate that the program was quite effective in initiating new cooperations between cluster actors and in intensifying existing linkages. The vast majority of the linkages which are influenced by the cluster program are between actors located in the cluster region. With respect to the influence of the cluster policy on network structure, we find an increase in network centralization. Small and medium sized enterprises used the chance to connect with the local ‘stars’, but not as much among each other.

Keywords: Social Network Analysis; Innovation Policy; Cluster Region; Strategic Importance; Innovative Performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: Policy induced innovation networks: the case of the German "Leading-Edge Cluster competition" (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:adspcp:978-3-319-02699-2_18

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319026992

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-02699-2_18

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Advances in Spatial Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().