Linking content and technology: on the geography of innovation networks in the Bergen media cluster

Abstract

This paper deals with the geography of innovation networks and analyses combinatorial knowledge dynamics from a single cluster perspective. Addressing firms in the media cluster in Bergen, Norway, we examine how and from where companies acquire and combine different types of knowledge for their innovation activities. The empirical analysis, which is based on structured interviews with 22 media companies, identifies two main types of cluster firms: media content providers that rely heavily on symbolic knowledge and media technology providers that draw mostly on synthetic knowledge. Even though they draw on different knowledge bases, the two types of firms are strongly interlinked in their innovation activities and source knowledge from each other. Furthermore, we find that synthetic firms constitute a gateway to the regional R&D system and that the region acts as key arena for the combination of dissimilar knowledge bases.

Keywords:

• Innovation networks
• knowledge bases
• creative industries
• new media
• Norway

JEL Classifications:

• L82
• O14
• O30
• O31

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the comments by Arne Isaksen on an earlier version of this paper. We also want to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive critique. All the usual caveats apply.

Notes

¹ See, for instance, the Research Council of Norway’s Programme for Regional R&D and Innovation (VRI) (RCN 2013).

² For more information on cluster policy instruments in Norway, see Innovation Norway (2015).