Explaining technological innovation of the clustered firms: Internal and relational factors

ABSTRACT

The objective of this research is to investigate the combinations of internal and external factors that lead cluster companies to innovate. The study follows a complex causality approach using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with a sample of 166 companies that belong to the Spanish ceramic tile cluster, differentiating between end product firms and specialized industrial firms. The results show how the two groups benefit from different factors when it comes to technological innovations. End product-focused firms benefit from vertical relationships with suppliers and the interaction with supporting organizations like universities, among others. Specialized industrial firms benefit, above all, from a high R&D investment.

KEYWORDS:

• Technological innovation
• vertical and horizontal relationships
• clustered firms
• fsQCA

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2021.1883035.

Notes

¹ Asociación Española de Fabricantes de Azulejos y Pavimentos Cerámicos: www.ascer.es.

² Asociacion Española de Fabricantes de Maquinaria y Bienes de Equipo para la Industria Cerámica. www.asebec.org.

³ Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes de Fritas, Esmaltes y Colores Cerámicos. www.anffecc.com.

Additional information

Funding

F. Xavier Molina-Morales and Luis Martínez-Cháfer acknowledge that this research was funded by Universitat Jaume I under Grant [UJI-B2018-29] and by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under Grant [RTI2018-100823-B-I00]. Norat Roig-Tierno wishes to thank Project [GV/2019/063], funded by the Generalitat Valenciana, and the “Agencia Estatal de Investigación y el Fondo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)” -  RTI2018-093791-B-C22 (MCI, AEI/FEDER, UE) for supporting this research.