Firm Innovativeness across Cluster Types

We ask whether and what kind of unique factors influence the innovativeness of firms in clusters across geographic regions and industrial sectors. We provide evidence for the driving forces of firm innovativeness in different cluster types. Distinguishing between hierarchical clusters of mature industries and non-hierarchical clusters of young industries in North America and Europe, we analyze the effects of inter-firm cooperation, network strength, university linkages and intra-organizational characteristics in support of entrepreneurial intentions on firm innovativeness. We find that heterogeneity across cluster types is important and dominates other differences across countries.