12. The Role of Communicators in Innovation Clusters

Innovation clusters continue to be an important focus of economic development policies in many nations. Leading innovation clusters demonstrate that regional concentration strengthens the innovative capability and can lead to successful competitiveness on a global level, as demonstrated by regions such as Silicon Valley (US), Cambridge (UK) and Sophia Antipolis (France). However the successful creation of clusters still presents a challenge to policy makers as efforts to do so regularly fail. The development of innovation clusters has therefore received much academic and policy maker attention. While past research has examined a variety of factors as drivers for clustering effects, the role of communication within the cluster—and, specifically, the role of key individual communicators—in underpinning successful cluster development has received almost no academic attention. In this chapter, we will draw upon the relevant literature to develop a conceptual framework that will underpin research on this important topic by investigating the role of communicators in innovation clusters. Building on communication theories, the framework suggests that there are four influence levels that shape and impact the role of communications in innovation clusters: the Individual Level, the Organizational Level, the Cluster Level and the Context. The interdisciplinary view on clustering effects contributes valuable insight to both communication studies and cluster theories. The framework developed within this chapter provides a structure to aid future research on the role of communicators within innovation clusters.