Increase The Technical Capacity Of The Firms In Cluster-based Knowledge Spillover

Industrial cluster is an essential characteristic of the current globalizing economies. In China, an agreement has been achieved either in the academy or industry that improving technological capability (TC) can be taken as an effective way to develop the competitive advantage of industrial clusters. From this point of view, the present study attempts to explore new approaches to improving the TC of industrial cluster firm. Emphases will be placed on discussing the positive influences of within-cluster knowledge spillover on the TC of industrial cluster firms.This thesis starts with the study on knowledge spillover effect within industrial cluster. The nature of knowledge spillover, the parties included in the knowledge spillover process, as well as the channels through which the knowledge spillover take place are thoroughly analyzed. Based on a review of the existing literatures on knowledge spillover theories, industrial cluster theories and existing research on the TC, this thesis divides the process of the knowledge spillover into two phases: overflowing and technological learning. It is claimed that the characteristics of spillover knowledge and the collective learning process can play well as two dimensions from which the effect of knowledge spillover to TC of cluster firms can be examined. Three angles have been identified in this thesis for discussing the cluster firms' technological competences resulting from the nature of knowledge. It is pointed out that person flows, informal communication, imitation, cooperation and interaction within industrial cluster are the major ways for collective technical learning.A further effort have been made in this thesis to examine the knowledge spillover-based mechanism for the growth of cluster firm TC and to find out how the interaction between knowledge characteristic and collective learning can be coordinated to promote the growth of TC for industrial cluster firms. Under the framework of a theoretical model proposed in this thesis, an empirical analysis has been conducted on the knowledge spillover effects in Hangzhou's Software Industrial Cluster with multiple statistic methods. The proposed model was testified as the result of this empirical study.Combing the theoretical model and the empirical findings, a series of strategic and policy advices are proposed, as a conclusion, for improving the TC of industrial cluster firms, based on knowledge spillover effect. Future research directions are also discussed.