Firm Heterogeneity and Trajectories of Learning: Applications and Relevant Policy Implications

In this chapter we would like to build on recent seminal, extensive work by Jensen et al. (2007), Arundel et al. (2007), and Lorenz and Valeyre (2007) on different modes of innovation and learning across firms and their production systems. On these bases we specify a particular taxonomy of firms based on the learning processes that operate within and across firms in specific local production systems. It is an important research objective as a detailed analysis of local production systems shows the extreme heterogeneity of firms within them, which needs to be taken into account to fully understand their innovation dynamics and to effectively promote their development processes (Boschma and Ter Wal, 2007). Complementarily, we also target the analysis of (nonlinear) sequences of development in the learning pattern of firms; this transcends the critical analysis of typologies, which may create too narrow and rigid boundaries to learning and innovation within firms. We propose the study of actual and foreseeable sequences as a means to giving dynamism to such taxonomy, and as a basis for the discussion of relevant implications for policy-making. With these objectives in mind, we ran a survey on a network of 25 firms associated to a local development forum, called Ezagutza Gunea, which aims to create a basis for joint learning processes based on a common understanding and identification of key issues and solutions to entrepreneurial, organizational, and territorial development problems.