3.3. The quality of linkages
The relationship between the common innovation
infrastructure and industrial clusters is reciprocal: for
a given cluster innovation environment, innovative
output will tend to increase with the strength of the
common innovation infrastructure (and vice versa).
For example, while stringent local environmental
regulations and well-developed supporting industries
may encourage innovation-oriented competition in
the environmental technologies cluster in Sweden,
the ability of the Swedish cluster to generate and
commercialize environmental innovations also depends
in part on the overall availability of trained
scientists and engineers, access to basic research,
and overall policies which reward the development
and commercialization of new technologies in the
economy. The strength of linkages influences the
extent to which the potential for innovation induced
by the common innovation infrastructure is translated
into specific innovative outputs in a nation’s
industrial clusters, thus shaping the realized rate of
national R&D productivity. Linkages can be facilitated
by various types of institutions, ranging from
universities to cluster trade associations to informal
alumni networks. In the absence of strong linking
mechanisms, upstream scientific and technical activity
may spill over to other countries more quickly
than opportunities can be exploited by domestic industries.
Germany took advantage of British discoveries
in chemistry, for example, while three Japanese
firms successfully commercialized VCR technology
initially developed in United States (Rosenbloom
and Cusumano, 1987). While the roles played by
some particular linking mechanisms have been studied
(from the Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany to
MITI in Japan to the use of Cooperative Research
and Development Associations (CRADAs) in United
States), there have been few attempts to evaluate the
impact of such institutions on international R&D
productivity.