Search

Clusters being considered as the proponents of innovation, there is a reasonable consensus among researchers and policy-makers that they are the sources of innovation. Therefore, of late, both researchers and policy-makers have increasingly focused on demystifying the factors driving innovation among the firms in a cluster, especially in a high-tech cluster. At the surface level, researchers have identified that the dynamism through interactions of a firm with other firms and associated institutions is one of the key drivers of innovation in a firm residing in a cluster. However, the factors that constitute degree of cluster interactions of firms that determine their innovation levels have not been explored adequately. Bengaluru being one of the highly ranked global hubs of technological innovation in Asia, houses densely interconnected network of high-tech manufacturing firms. It is in the context of Bengaluru cluster that this paper discerned the factors constituting degree of cluster linkages of firms that differentiated the innovation performance among the firms in a cluster. It was found that the ability of a firm to integrate global value chain both vertically and horizontally through extra-cluster linkages determines the innovation performance of a firm in a cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an account of the emergence and development of a Venture Capital Industry in Israel, and the role it played in the recent successful growth of Israel's high tech cluster. The paper focuses on Israel's Venture Capital Industry, its emergence and operation during the 90s, in which period the number of VC Funds increased from 2 to over 100. The context is the transformation of Israel's high tech industry from the Defense-dominated Electronics industry of the 70s/80s to the 'Silicon Valley' model of the 90s characterized by large numbers of SU companies. During this period the share of high tech in manufacturing industry; and ICT's share in the Business Sector increased considerably attaining one of the highest levels worldwide. Given the importance of Venture Capital an analysis of the waves of new SU companies should be done jointly with an analysis of the emergence and development of Venture Capital (and vice-versa). The approach adopted is Evolutionary & Systemic rather than a focus on 'the operation' of a mature Venture Capital industry, which has been more frequent in the VC literature.We focus on the Dynamics of Venture Capital particularly of the emergence and of subsequent development of the industry. We link these with core Evolutionary concepts such as variation, selection and reproduction (Nelson 1995). The paper discusses the co-evolutionary and dynamic process involving the business sector, technology policies, venture-capitalists, individuals & Startup companies, and foreign linkages. We attempt to show that VC emergence is part & parcel of the reconfiguration of a pre-existing Electronics Industry one involving large amounts of SU and new and powerful links with global capital markets. The main conclusions and policy lessons of the paper are that specific technology policies targeted to the Venture Capital sector can be effective only to the extent that favorable background conditions exist or are created. The main groups of factors, events or sub-processes influencing the emergence process which started in 1993, and subsequent development, are: (1) favorable background conditions; (2) features of the immediate pre-emergence period (1989-92); (3) Targeted Policies which directly triggered VC Emergence (1993-98); (4) Strong VC-SU co-evolution; (5) Global Capital Market Links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]