Title: The impacts of networking on the innovation process inside industrial cluster firms: experiences from China

Authors: Jiang Wei, Haiyan Zhu, Khaleel Malik

Addresses: School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. ' School of Business and Management, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing, China. ' MIoIR/Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

Abstract: This paper deals with the development of innovation capabilities inside industrial cluster firms and discusses the relationship between: firms networking with other firms and external partners inside their clusters; and the effects of this networking on the innovation performance of the cluster firms. The paper reports findings from a research study conducted in China|s Zhejiang Province, where 212 out of 336 enterprises based in six industrial clusters responded to our questionnaire survey. Our study shows that |strategic networking| inside clusters improves both product innovation performance and overall speed of the innovation process inside technology-based SMEs, which ultimately effects competitive performance.

Keywords: strategic networking; communication; innovation process; China; innovation speed; industrial clusters; innovation capabilities; product innovation; technology-based SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTE.2008.022864

International Journal of Technoentrepreneurship, 2008 Vol.1 No.4, pp.363 - 377

Published online: 30 Jan 2009 *

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