Knowledge transfer when the plug is disconnected

Purpose – Cluster initiatives are projects established by local or national governments to foster the competitiveness of organizations and territories through the facilitation of informal and formal ties among firms that may improve knowledge diffusion, innovation, and new product development. Such projects are managed by project managers, or sometimes by organizations, whose main objectives are a) ensuring network development through the facilitation of interfirm linkages and b) envisioning the path for cluster development. The paper represents an attempt to investigate what happens when the agglomeration project terminates and clustered organizations are not anymore subject to the stimuli toward knowledge transfer exerted by cluster managers. Design/methodology/approach – We study the knowledge network underlying an Italian high-tech cluster initiative through Social Network Analysis. We coded networks of formal and informal ties with a variety of contents, observed at two points in time, namely 2015 (when the cluster project was terminated) and 2017. We compare the observations of the network at the two points in time in order to assess the changes occurred after the cluster manager’s facilitation activity ceased, particularly focusing on whether clustered firms changed their networking behaviour when “the plug was disconnected”. Originality/value – The original element of this study lies in the analysis of the networking behaviour of the firms after the termination of the cluster initiative. While there exist abundant research and evidence about both geographical clusters and public policies aimed at fostering ties among clustered firms, far less is known about how lasting the effects of these policies are. This study contains evidence that clustered firms did not maintain the same relational behaviour two years after the termination of the facilitation activity of the cluster manager. Practical implications – When designing cluster initiatives due care should be had to ensure that cluster managers adequately support clustered firms in the development of the knowledge network, throughout the whole project life cycle. In this regard, our work suggests that the facilitation activity of cluster managers should be terminated only once cluster members have interiorized a networking attitude, in order for them to continue knowledge-transfer activities when the stimuli by cluster manager have ceased. The sharp interruption of the facilitation activity of the cluster manager is likely to nullify the beneficial effects of the cluster project.