Clusters and Innovation in the Life-science Sector

The paper investigates the impact of clusters - aggregations of industrial, academic and institutional players in a localized network - on innovation in the life-science setting and aims to enrich the line of inquiry into cluster-based innovation by applying social network analysis (SNA) approach and methods. The cluster concept has been defined in ambiguous ways, it is rather flexible, corresponding to a large variety of spatial and organizational concrete configurations. Trying to understand which of them drives to a higher cluster’s innovative outcome is the paper general aim. The addressed research question is: What is the impact of intra-cluster and inter-cluster network characteristics on the cluster’s innovative performance in the life-science sector?