Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to portrait how members of cluster organizations (COs) perceive the role of clusters in enabling them accumulation of technological capability significant for their innovation. The authors report the findings from the qualitative study based on analysis of four COs from the metal and the highly internationalized ICT industry that concerns the role of knowledge and other cluster benefits in technological capability dynamics of cluster companies. The organizational inertia and absorptive capacity theories are the theoretical underpinning of the research. It shows that the companies with relatively low initial technological capability increase it via COs, if the clusters offer comparatively high benefits compatible or not with their technological trajectories. On the other hand, those COs’ members that present relatively high initial technological capability advance it, provided that the external knowledge and other benefits they can absorb from partners in their clusters is suited to their technological trajectories. Our study suggests that coordinators in COs should create subgroups of partners based on similarity of their technological capability as it increases chances for cooperation among them that may result in innovation. The findings add to the state-of-the-art knowledge on the link between technological capability and absorptive capacity of companies involved in COs by depicting the role of COs in providing knowledge and other cluster benefits that help cluster companies to accumulate technological capability and improve their absorptive capacity which further support their innovation. Nevertheless, the qualitative approach in the study does not allow for generalizing the findings.

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