Technological capability dynamics through cluster organizations

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to portrait how members of cluster organizations (COs) perceive the role of COs in enabling them to accumulate technological capability (TC) significant for their innovation. Design/methodology/approach: The authors report the findings from their qualitative study based on an analysis of four COs. The organizational inertia and absorptive capacity theories are the theoretical underpinning of the research. Findings: The study shows that the dynamics of TC of the cluster companies included in the study sample relates to their initial level of TC and cluster cooperation. The companies with relatively low initial TC increase it through COs if the clusters offer comparatively high benefits. On the other hand, those COs' members that present relatively high initial TC advance it, provided that the external knowledge and other benefits they can absorb in their clusters are suited to their technological trajectories. Research limitations/implications: The research is preliminary in nature and portrays how firms with different levels of TC cooperate within COs and how this cooperation translates into TC improvements. The findings add to the state-of-the-art knowledge on the link between TC and absorptive capacity of companies involved in COs by depicting the role of COs in providing knowledge and other cluster benefits that help cluster companies to accumulate TC and improve their absorptive capacity. Nevertheless, the applied methodology does not allow the authors to generalize the findings. Practical implications: The coordinators of COs should skillfully shape the levels of cluster cooperation, matching them to the desired level of the cluster companies. They should create smaller subgroups composed of companies with similar TC, which may translate into its higher dynamic. Originality/value: The knowledge about the role of COs in providing cluster benefits that help cluster companies to accumulate TC and improve their absorptive capacity is still insufficient. The study shed new light on the key role of the levels of cluster cooperation and the types of commitment related to them (i.e. technological effort), which may be a matter of importance in the dynamics of TC accumulation.