Small world network structure and innovation

The paper investigates the impact of small world network characteristics on the cluster's innovative performance and applies a contingency approach to the small world arguments. In particular it explores how contingencies, such as knowledge heterogeneity and geography, moderate the main relation between small world network characteristics and cluster's innovation. The analysis is carried out in the context of the U.S. life-science clusters. Clusters can correspond to a large variety of spatial and organizational concrete configurations, being the cluster concept defined in ambiguous ways, and the work tries to identify the configurations that maximize innovative outcomes.