INNOVATION CLUSTERS: SOCIAL LEARNING AND BUSINESS INCUBATION

Abstract

A sustainable innovation is more expensive than a regular one but it may lead to long termbenefits and durable competitive advantage, especially if many firms from the networkcollude or act within constrained environments such as business incubators. The opinionformation process, which leads to sustainable innovation, may be viewed as a collectivecognitive process resembling that of branding and re-branding. Technological innovationscan be viewed as sequences of cost reduction events and, in a many-firm setting, sociallearning which leads to sustainability-oriented behaviour depends on (mutual) trustrelations. The experimental modelling part of the paper illustrates selected aspects of theconcept just outlined by developing a stylized dynamic model of the firm.

Keywords

• innovation
• incubators
• networks
• sustainability
• learning