Innovation, absorptive capacity, environmental complexity, trust and cooperation within clusters.

Purpose – Innovation within clusters is a crucial aspect in regional development. In the last decades, in the literature the role of absorptive capacity, environment, trust and cooperation in leveraging both explorative and exploitive innovation has been highlighted. In this paper we assess the contributions of these factors on the basis of a comparative analysis between about 250 firms belonging to twelve cluster of six European countries. Design/methodology/approach – Knowledge acquisition, assimilation and transformation; environmental dynamism and competitiveness; trust in region and cooperation within cluster are defined and argued as driver of explorative and exploitative innovation. Each variable was defined by aggregating items measured through a seven-point Likert scale (reliability of each construct was verified by performing factor analysis and Cronbach alpha). Scatter plots and ANOVA test are applied to evaluate the statistically significant difference between clusters. Findings - The results confirm the role of absorptive capacities and environmental dynamism as key drivers in innovation. Trust positively contributes to exploitative innovation more than explorative one. Cluster management subsidizes the lack of trust. Practical implications – The paper provides a comparative methodology to make the difference between cluster evident. Significant implications in regional policies could be defined to enhance innovation capacity of less innovative cluster.