Can a governance structure foster cluster ambidexterity through knowledge management? An empirical study of two French SME clusters

Abstract

International audienceTo identify how a governance structure leads to ambidexterity at the cluster level, in terms of knowledge management, this study draws on the knowledge -based view of clusters and on ambidexterity literature, thereby exploring an ‘intermediated’ cluster model of ambidexterity. Our aim is to explore the governance structure’s role and priorities in terms of knowledge management, as well as the underlying operational actions and programmes implemented to achieve cluster ambidexterity. Qualitative research, based on interviews with members of two French clusters, reveals that their governance structure is a crucial intermediary organisation that supports cluster ambidexterity. The results emphasise the role of governance structures for two types of ambidexterity in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clusters: First, SMEs may specialise in exploitative or exploratory knowledge, and the governance structure provides the missing knowledge (intermediated specialised model). Second, cluster governance may help each firm become ambidextrous (intermediated dual model). This study outlines the specificities of the two models and their contingency factors, which offer interesting implications, especially for policymakers devoted to innovation and clusters

Cluster ambidexterity towards exploration and exploitation: strategies and cluster management

“…The argument by Bocquet and Mothe (2015) that a cluster management is an intermediary for the fulfillment of ambidexterity strategies of cluster firms seems to find support here. In detail, we find that a need on the side of the firms is positively related with a high priority for the cluster management for the following services: R&D infrastructure, events for the cluster members, consulting with regards to R&D funding opportunities, contact to the funding agency of the 'leading edge cluster competition', networking with actors outside the cluster and arrangement of international contacts.…”

“…If the firms themselves should be ambidextrous, the services they demand from the cluster management will serve both strategies: exploitation and exploration. By this, the cluster management is also sustaining the firms to do what Bocquet and Mothe (2015) propose: kindly handle external knowledge into the cluster, but more in an indirect way. On that background, our paper takes a closer look at core aspects of ambidexterity at the level of the cluster actors and their relation to the cluster managements.…”

“…It might turn out that both work conditional on the circumstances they meet also with respect to the sector the forms are active in (Bocquet & Mothe, 2015). Both models assume that it is nearly impossible for a single firm to pursue exploration and exploitation with the same intensity since both require activities and strategies that are too contradictory.…”

“…Translating this to a cluster perspective the task of a cluster initiative would be to coordinate the interaction among the specialized actors. Bocquet and Mothe (2015) address the cluster level in arguing more in favor of a cluster's absorptive capacities; they suggest that a cluster management enhances potential and realized absorptive capacities by managing external knowledge flows into the cluster. In this framework, a cluster management is supposed to provide skills and processing abilities to support acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation of knowledge.…”

“…This is what we want to test in our analysis. This analysis can also be taken as a kind of test of Bocquet and Mothe's (2015) model since it might occur that we do not find a relationship between ambidexterity strategies of the actors and cluster management activities.…”