Madeline Smith madeline@ekosconsulting.co.uk Mobile: +44 78 87 66 08 08 Lise Andersen lia@sdu.dk Mobile: +45 23 38 00 00

1. Examining Open Innovation Practices among
International Networks of Clusters
Emily Wise, VINNOVA & Lund University, SE
Lise Andersen, Reg-X & Southern Denmark Univ.
Madeline Smith, EKOS Consulting, UK

2. Presentation Objectives (and Disclaimer)
• Present planned research activities
– On topics of open innovation, social capital
development, and value-added of organized cluster
efforts in the context of international innovation
networks
– Focused on five transnational networks of innovation
environments, clusters and SMEs in the Baltic Sea
Region
• Get peer input on how other regions are working
with these topics (in relation to their cluster
activities)

3. Outline
• The EU Strategy for the BSR and the BSR Stars
Flagship Prog
• Research objective/questions
• Discussion

4. 4
The EU Strategy
for the Baltic Sea Macro Region
FOUR OVERALL OBJECTIVES:
• To make the Baltic Sea region an environmentally CLEAN place
• To make the Baltic Sea region a PROSPEROUS place
• To make the Baltic Sea region an ACCESSIBLE and ATTRACTIVE
place
• To make the Baltic Sea region a SAFE and SECURE place
And an action plan with 15 action areas (one of which is research
and innovation – co-led by Sweden and Poland)

5. 5
Flagship projects in Chap 7 Research &
Innovation
Lead Partner
1
Fast T
Innovation, Clusters & SME
Networks
Sweden (Vinnova)/
Lithuania
2 Baltic Sea Fund for Innovation &
Research
The Skåne Region
3 Services innovation Lithuania/Finland
4 Innovation in Health & Life
sciences
Lithuania/Germany
5 Science link for research
infrastructure
Sweden (Swedish
Research Council)

6. 6
WHY
INCREASED TRANSNATIONAL COOPERATION BETWEEN INNOVATIVE
MILIEUS, CLUSTERS AND SME NETWORKS?
• Countries grow with neighbors that grow
• Larger Home Market for products, services and knowledge,
110 million people in 10 countries. (especially important for SMEs)
• There is potential that BSR can be a global recognized strong
environment in a number of areas
• We have Leading companies/universities/ clusters
Three logics:
1. A stronger value chain can be offered within the macro region
2. A larger critical mass in research and innovation
3. Complementary competences creates renewal

7. BSR Stars/Stardust aims at
creating a number of globally-
leading research and
innovation hubs
- building on existing commercial
strengths and specialised
competencies around the BSR
- linking these research and
innovation nodes through
transnational collaboration projects
- developing stronger critical mass,
attractiveness and international
competitive position

9. Design, Management and Coordination (WP0, WP1)
Transnational
Collaboration Pilots
(WP3&4)
Orches-
trate &
Facilitate
Mobile
Vikings
Clean
Water
Active
for Life
MarChain
Comfort
in Living
Concepts
Communication, Learning WS,
and other events (WP2)
The Logic of StarDust

11. 11
Theme Project description Partners
Cleantech
&
Future Energy
Clean Water
Open Innovation & Value Chain
SME – Focus, commercialize
services & products
Testbed in Vodacanal, Russia
Lahti Cleantech cluster,
FIN
SWE, Sustainable Sweden,
POL
AssP: Green Net , FIN
Vodacanal Russia
Wellbeing
& Health
Active Ageing − Develop
commercial services to keep people
active for a longer time
Making systems solutions − value
chain
Market target China
User driven innovation system
Cumulatum, FIN
(DE), (GE), (LITH), (SWE)
– Livets nya verktyg,
(NO) to be added
Region of Skåne (SWE)
Future
Transport
Marchain
Early stage – Develop business plan
and links, using intelligence between
national maritime clusters to increase
competetitiveness
Claipedia Science &
Technology Park, LITH
FIN, LAT, EST, POL, SWE,
DE, DK, NO, IS
Digital business
and services
Mobile VIKINGS SWE, Skåne, Mobile
Heights
FIN, LITH + many BSR
clusters
Other
Comfort in Living Concepts
Solutions of comfort living for
tomorrows generation by using design
knowledge
Links of SME networks
Furniture of Kingdom,
SWE
LITH, LAT, POL

12. Some of the topics we talk about at
TCI conferences
• Globalization of innovation and the
importance of international cluster
cooperation
• Cluster dynamics and the process of social
capital building (within clusters)
• Open innovation
• Evaluation of impact from policy investments
in clustering efforts

13. Objective of the research project
Understand how
international innovation
processes are facilitated
by the network of cluster
organizations (and other
actors within regional
innovation systems)
within the BSR
• What are cluster actors’
expectations/expected benefits with
transnational cluster networks?
• Do cluster organizations facilitate the
strengthening of international
linkages between company and
research actors in the networks?
• Is it important to have strong internal
cluster dynamics (i.e. social capital)
before pursuing innovation activities
internationally?
• Do existing policies support open
innovation activities within a cluster
and between clusters internationally?

14. How do knowledge linkages develop
internationally (through network nodes)?
ILLUSTRATIVE

15. Clusters and Social Capital
• Previous studies give a snapshot picture
– Show current state
– Are relatively static
• Reality is that:
– How organisations work together is important
– This is poorly captured in evaluation (Social
Capital?)
• Cluster dynamics model
– Systems thinking approach
– explores dynamic nature of clusters
– Shows behaviours and company interaction as
cluster develops
– Developed in Scotland, successfully implemented
in Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland,
California, Finland

16. Stimulation and
Acquisition of
relevant
research and
development
L5 FUTURE FOCUS
LOOP
Performance of
individual firms
Overall
performance of
all firms in the
zone
Overall Cluster
competitive
performance
Motivation for
competitive
innovation
Degree of
enhancement of
competitive
innovation
Platform for
new level of
innovation
Sharing of
critical sectoral
knowledge
Extent of
cooperative
initiatives
Extent of shared
response to
common
challenges
L1 INTER-FIRM RIVALRY LOOP
L2 INTER-FIRM CO-OPERATION
LOOP
Global competition
and external market
pressure
Type of cultural
context
L3 COLLABORATIVE
ADVANTAGE
LOOP L4 VENTURE
ATTRACTIVENESS
LOOP
Collection – Cooperation - Collaboration
Competitive
power of cluster
Smith and Brown, Local Economy, June 2009
The Cluster Dynamic Loops

17. Collaborate to innovate – why?
• Most of the smart people don’t work for you
• Gain access people you couldn’t . . . or wouldn’t employ
• Diversity is as important as ability*
• Nobody is as smart as everybody (Wisdom of crowds)
• Metcalf’s law - Vn µ N²
• Leverages the law of ‘requisite variety’
‘Most Innovation happens elsewhere’
Bill Joy – Sun Microsystems, Inc.
* Source: Lu Hong / Scott E. Page

18. Open Innovation – Leveraging Social
Capital
Traditional Innovation Open Innovation
Expertise triumphs Diversity trumps expertise
We know what the consumer
wants
Consumers are passionate users
who innovate – producers follow
What you know matters Who you know matters
Take no risks - copyright, patent &
protect
Judge the risk of releasing
information against the return of
gaining understanding
The goal is to agree The goal is to tap into those who
agree and disagree
Improve ideas by applying more
resources
Improve ideas by sharing them
Judge ideas by how they fit Judge ideas by how they differ
and what they offer
Relationship hierarchies Relationship networks
Innovation management - control Innovation cultivation - evolve
Expertise
Consumer
Knowledge
Intellectual
Property
Collaboration vs.
competition
Development
Assessment
Relationships
Organising

19. A purposeful, strategic way of working that leverages the resources of each party for the
benefit of all by coordinating activities and communicating information within an environment
of trust and transparency
Companies Collaborate for a Reason
Benefit of
Collaboration
=
Value of
Resources Leveraged
Time and Effort to
Collaborate
© 2008 The Rhythm of Business, Inc.

20. Clusters and Open Innovation
• Clusters = sector specific Innovation systems
• Collective ability to learn
“The future belongs to those who collaborate…To
succeed in this environment, organisations will
need to collaborate with thousands of specialised
players, from customers and partners to
competitors, regional distributors and university
researchers” (EIU 2007)

21. Clusters are ...
l Learning organisations
l By nature open and collaborative
l Share knowledge
l Learn from each other
l Work in different ways
A Hotbed of Open Innovation?
Need better understanding of how clusters can also
work in this way transnationally?

22. Questions for Discussion
• How can Open Innovation approaches (and
mind-sets) help cluster development?
– How can we encourage collaboration
– Within a cluster, between clusters, transnationally
• What are the essential pre-requisites for
successful transnational cooperation?
• Are there other transnational cluster pilots
that we can share learning between?

23. Contact information
Emily Wise
emily.wise@vinnova.se
Mobile: +46 73 101 1426