Guilty by Association: A Cross-industrial Approach to Sourcing Complementary Knowledge in the Uppsala Biotechnology Cluster

Abstract

A wide range of industrial studies recognize the tendency of similar and related economic activities to co-locate in so-called industrial systems or clusters. While a cluster is defined by its cross-industrial relations the supporting and complementary role of cluster actors is seldom fully explored. This study will focus on the dynamics of cluster relations and give an account for the complementary nature of clusters by analysing anchor firms and complementary agents (such as specialized service providers and institutions for collaboration) in the Uppsala biotechnology cluster in Sweden. The empirical data used involves a triangulation of interview, survey and individual-based register data based upon a mapping of cluster actors active in 2002 and 2003. It is shown that both the formerly dominant pharmaceutical company and the local university have actively taken the role as anchor firms/organizations creating a local and dynamic milieu for biotechnology activities. Furthermore, it is shown that the local cluster consists of a variety of complementary agents contributing to knowledge spillovers and cluster competitiveness.

Acknowledgement

This research has been financed by CIND (Centre for Research on Innovations and Industrial Dynamics) and the research programme “Swedish Model in Transition”, a co-operation project between Uppsala University and the National Institute of Working Life. I am grateful to Anders Malmberg, Dominic Power and Johan Jansson for constructive and encouraging comments during the process of writing this article. Usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

This could be exemplified by a tourism cluster: a tourist seeking a good skiing experience is most often also attracted to a place given the quality and availability of its hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, shops, transport facilities, and so forth. The actors in the cluster is dependent on the value created and provided by the primary attraction, but also the quality of existing complementary agents.

Whether the actors in the biotech cluster are in fact interconnected, or to which degree, is discussed and analyzed in Waxell (2005) and Waxell and Malmberg (2007).

Teaching employees at the universities in Sweden have a lawful right to, beside their regular employment, outsource R&D activities or to be employed by a second party as long as the activity is not deemed as publicly damaging for the university in question.

Technically the income level is geared to a price index (price base amount) that is yearly regulated by the Swedish government. Individuals earning less than one price base amount have been excluded in order to reduce the effects of temporary employees on the income level (such as students working during the summer period).

The yearly income level in the Uppsala biotech cluster is here measured as the median income of individuals stating one of the organizations belonging to the stock of organizations in the cluster that were active in both 1995 and 2002 as their largest source of income during each year respectively. The stock of organizations has been used to get a more stable comparison of income levels.

Due to the nature of the database material it should however be noted that the component for public and private research organizations also comprises the entire university organization where only parts thereof is engaged with biotech related research or activities.