To Cluster or Not to Cluster: A Simulation Study of Managerial Practices for Innovating in SMEs

摘要

The model has been inspired in the process observed in the Chilean wine industry in the last 15 years. In this industry, firms, which have climbed up the ladder of innovation and obtained high value-added products like ultra premiun wines selling for U$S 100 each bottle, have developed absorptive capacities by hiring recognized oenologists, actively participated in vertical networks through establishing alliances with distributors or supermarkets and benefited from the interaction with foreign firms to acquire knowledge, and finally applied this knowledge to upgrade the sophistication of its production function exploiting a positive reinforcing feedback process. However, these processes did not occur all of them at the same time, the fruits of investing in the development of absorptive capacity can only be reaped after a long period of time and in conjunction with investments in building relationships with global supply chains in order to obtain even more valuable transactions.