Strategizing across Boundaries: Revisiting Knowledge Brokering Activities in French Innovation Clusters
Résumé
Purpose – Cooperative relationships between actors located in the same geographical area that are
economically independent and culturally distinct are the heart of functioning innovation clusters. This
can slow down the creation of common innovation projects, particularly in French innovation clusters
where cooperation is influenced by the governmental financing devoted to this system. This research
focuses on knowledge brokering activities implemented in this inter-organizational context, showing
how they cross knowledge boundaries, structure cooperative dynamics and participate in common
strategy-making. The mobilization of the strategy as practice theory allows for an in-depth analysis,
shedding light on various practices, resources and practitioners related to the brokering activities taking
place within an innovation cluster in Paris. Findings show a widespread development of brokering
activities that emerges from cluster governance unit to its networks according to a reflexive relationship
progressive structured over time.
Design/methodology/approach – This research is based on a longitudinal exploratory analysis of the
Parisian cluster Advancity. To capture its organizational dynamics, two databases of the cluster (focused on
innovation projects and integration of members), 24 power point files presented to negotiate strategy and 13
interviews with managers and members of the cluster were used. The whole data was triangulated and
generated categories of data that can be compared with the concepts of the literature on innovation clusters
(governance), brokering activities (knowledge access, learning, networking and implementation) and
strategy-making (recursive process and adaptation of the strategy).
Findings – The analysis shows the effects of each type of brokering activities on strategy-making
across knowledge and organizational boundaries. The practices of implementation activity initially
absent from the cluster become, in its mature phase, one of the central activities. Moreover, all the
brokering activities are initially handled by the managers of the cluster and progressively are extended
to their members, then becoming a widespread activity within the internal networks. The maturation of
these practices goes together with the maturation of its own cluster. The practice of experimentation
particularly affects brokering activities and produces learning and networking effects within the cluster.
Practical implications – From a managerial point of view, considering the organization of the clusters
as a constellation of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) emphasizes that the knowledge brokerage
activities can be extended and delayed within each community that makes up the organization. A
top-down approach could therefore suffocate the network. It would be interesting to develop this
research approach in future work and complete this research by reinforcing microscopic analysis
enabled, for example, by tracking a small number of innovation projects during their lifecycle.
Social implications – The empirical foundation proposed in this research strengthens the scientific
nature of the theory of the activity that is itself integrated in the perspective of the practice (Seidl et al.,
2006). The multilevel approach and wealth of the mobilized and analysed empirical data allowed
making more visible how a social activity builds itself, develops and creates aperture effects on the
strategy driven by innovation at the intersection of different boundaries.
Originality/value – The results of this research provide a theoretical contribution in that they allow to revisit
the classification of the activities of a knowledge broker (Hargadon 1998, 2005) in a new organizational
context representative of the knowledge-based innovation (Amin and Cohendet, 2004). They are also
contributing to the current emerging from the knowledge-based view of clusters (Bahlmann and Huysman,
2008; Arikan, 2009) by mobilizing the theory of the practice (Whittington, 2006; Jarzabkowski, 2005). This
perspective helps to discern a particular form of strategy-making within the clusters.