Knowledge exchange behaviours of science park firms: the innovation hub case

Abstract

This paper regards the knowledge flows between firms located on a science park as a type of network behaviour and answers three research questions: (1) What are the knowledge exchange behaviours of on-park firms? (2) Can we distinguish different types of behaviour among these firms?, and if so, (3) What are differences between these groups? We take a relational approach in which actor and relationship features are studied in a sample of firms located at the Innovation Hub (South Africa). Results show that there are two groups of firms: on-park firms that network with other on-park firms (Group 1) and those that do not (Group 0). Compared with Group 0, Group 1 has more informal ties with off-park firms; is able to gain more useful knowledge from private knowledge sources; and has more access to unintended knowledge that flows in the park. However, the innovative performance of the groups does not differ.

Keywords:

• science parks
• knowledge exchange
• networks
• innovative performances
• the innovation hub

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the academic support by the Graduate School of Technology Management at University of Pretoria, and the Department of Organisation Studies and the Center for Innovation Research at Tilburg University, in the Netherlands. We also are very grateful to the particpants of the PICMET Conference 2008, Cape Town, South Africa, and two anonymous TASM reviewers for their helpful comments.