This paper focuses on innovation performance and investigates the impact of clusters, or localized networks involving industrial, academic and institutional players, in the pharmaceutical setting; we aim to enrich the line of inquiry into cluster-based innovation by applying a social network analysis (SNA) approach. The cluster concept has been defined in ambiguous ways, corresponding to a large variety of spatial and organizational concrete configurations. By analysing the U.S. pharmaceutical context, we show the structural and nodal network characteristics of the clusters and we shed some light on the "small-world" effects of the structural holes.

The paper explores how firms can promote new idea generation through staff motivation, by introducing incentives. Incentives can spur an evolution in the staff attitude from "productive" behaviours (result achievement) to "innovative" and "cooperative" behaviours which make the difference for idea generation. However the impact of individual and group incentives on the individual innovative propensity of R&D professionals is still unclear, with a huge debate in the literature on the role of extrinsic and intrinsic incentives and motivation. The paper tries to shed lights on this topic by identifying intermediate motivational factors as well as other organisational elements that moderate the main relation between incentives and innovative propensity. The empirical part of the paper is a qualitative study consisting in the analysis of case studies. The results show that intrinsic incentives and motivation, in the form of acknowledgement and actual implementation of ideas of innovators, are the main factors that positively affect innovative propensity. The group dimension in rewarding and the overlapping of regulation and personal goals are also very important. The main organisational characteristics that positively moderate the relation between incentives and innovative propensity are managerial support, task stability and width of role.

Abstract:In recent years, many industries have seen the rise of new inter-organizational forms. Among those new forms, organizational networks, clusters, and small worlds are attracting increasing interest, both in academic research and management practice. While economic theory considers such forms to be market failures, organization theory highlights their potential positive effects on the participating organizations. The organizational literature often uses the terms "networks", "clusters", and "small worlds" as synonymous even though there are differences between them. Moreover, given the sometimes-spontaneous emergence of these organizational forms, the extent to which they can be designed is not always clear. This article discusses the characteristics of networks, clusters, and small worlds; their operational parameters; and how these organizational forms are related. Further, we identify the role of design in these types of organizations.

The paper analyses the impact of the "Triple Helix" on innovation by assuming a network theory approach. The aim is to build a theoretical framework to improve the understanding of the effect of clusters involving industrial, academic and institutional players on the cluster's innovation. In particular the work is focused on intra-cluster and inter-cluster structural and nodal characteristics in the life-science industry.

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