Relations de proximité et comportements d'innovation des entreprises des clusters. Le cas du cluster de l'optique en Île-de-France

Analysis of proximity relations has often focused on the areas of industrial relations and innovation, introducing successive refinements centred on the seminal concepts of geographical and organised proximity. The aim of this article is to analyse and to assess for the diversity of proximity relations maintained by various types of innovative firms within a cluster, and to illustrate it with a case study analysis. We start with a presentation of the main characteristics of proximity relations: organised proximity and (permanent or temporary) geographical proximity, and define on that basis an analytical grid of the various relations maintained by the firms located in a cluster, be there local or distant ones. Then, we applied this analysis to an applied example, the one of the optics cluster in the greater Paris region. In order to identify groups of firms we apply the Porterian analysis method to strategic groups. The results reveal the existence of four different groups of innovative firms that maintain specific spatial relations and mobilize local relations and long-distance exchanges in different ways, via mobility or ICT. We show that the mobilization patterns of the different proximity types vary depending on the size of the firms, their place within the value chain, their degree of specialization and the maturity of the technology used.