Organization of Knowledge Transfer in Clusters

In this paper we develop a knowledge-based view on the organization of knowledge transfer in clusters. Starting from the information richness theory we argue that tacitness of the partners’ knowledge determines the information richness of the knowledge transfer mechanisms in clusters. We examine the following hypotheses: (1) If the cluster partners’ knowledge is characterized by a low degree of tacitness, knowledge transfer mechanisms with a lower degree of information richness are used; (2) if the cluster partners’ knowledge is characterized by a high degree of tacitness, knowledge transfer mechanisms with a higher degree of information richness are used. We test these hypotheses by using data from the Green Building Cluster of Lower Austria. The data provide partial support for the hypotheses