Interfirm Co-Operation and Learning within SME Networks: Two Case Studies from the Styrian Automotive Cluster

Learning, which has often, since Arrow (1962), been addressed as an important phenomenon in economics, has only recently received attention in the interpretation and analysis of clusters and networks. Its importance is nevertheless acknowledged, not least because of the acceptance of the relevance of modern growth theory to the cluster concept. Yet the external effects of human capital (Lucas 1988), the dimensions of the learning curve and especially of organisational learning, are only beginning to be integrated into the cluster concept. Clusters as units of analysis presume not only a high density of interaction and co-operation, but also the creation and diffusion of knowledge via common efforts in learning. The recent literature (see e.g. Coombs et al 1996; Dodgson 1996; Hassink 1997; Senker and Sharp 1997; Cullen 1998; Steiner and Hartmann 1998) suggests that this new approach may offer new findings about behaviour within clusters and networks of small and medium sized enterprises, going beyond the well known ideas of learning by doing and knowledge spill-overs.