Clusters and Co-Laboratories

Abstract

This paper looks at how small companies develop their knowledge asset base through ‘organizational learning’, and particularly through the development of cooperative linkages via ‘knowledge clusters’. Against this background, the author discusses the processes involved in organizational learning within industrial clusters. In the light of this discussion, he then offers a brief appraisal of the prospects for promoting collaborative learning through the use of ‘Information Society Technologies’. The paper draws on the results of two major pan-European projects – DELOS and COMPETE – both funded under the European Commission's ‘Targeted Socio-Economic Research Programme’. On the basis of the results of these projects, the author provides a typology of knowledge clusters and speculates on how information and communication technologies can promote collaborative learning in industrial clusters.