Title: Coordination of interactions in innovative environments

Authors: Rejean Landry, Nabil Amara, Moktar Lamari, Mathieu Ouimet

Addresses: Department of Management, Faculty of Business, Universite Laval, Quebec, QC G1K 7P4, Canada. ' Department of Management, Faculty of Business, Universite Laval, Quebec, QC G1K 7P4, Canada. ' Ministere du developpement economique et regional et de la recherche, Gouvernement du Quebec, 1150, Chemin Saint-Louis, 1er etage Sillery, Quebec, QC G1S 4Y9, Canada. ' Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, Health Sciences Centre, 2C area, McMaster University, 1200 Main Street, West Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5, Canada

Abstract: Studies on innovative environments emphasise the importance of localised interactions as drivers of innovations. However, empirical studies on the coordination of interactions between firms operating in innovative environments are scanty. This paper adapts the Metcalfe coordination scale to identify levels of coordination and their determinants in using data of a recent survey on comprising 800 firms located in a Canadian manufacturing region. In order to see what the determinants of coordination of interactions are we estimated OLS models for four types of innovative environments (pole, technopole, industrial district and cluster). In addition to shedding new light on determinants of coordination in clusters, the results of this paper identify significant explanatory factors of coordination of interactions that should be considered as tools that policy makers could use to facilitate coordination in clusters.

Keywords: innovation management; innovation environment; poles; technopoles; industrial districts; clusters; milieu innovateur; coordination; manufacturing firms; interactions; Canada; entrepreneurship.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2007.012881

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2007 Vol.7 No.2/3/4/5, pp.174 - 203

Published online: 21 Mar 2007 *

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