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Conceptualizing Multiple Clusters in Mega-City Regions: The Case of the Biomedical
Industry in Beijing
Harald Bathelt & Jingyuan Zhao
Version Post-print/accepted manuscript
Citation (published version)
Bathelt, H., & Zhao, J. (2016). Conceptualizing multiple clusters in mega-city regions: the case of the biomedical industry in Beijing. Geoforum, 75, 186-198.
Publisher’s Statement The version of record [Bathelt, H., & Zhao, J. (2016). Conceptualizing multiple clusters in mega-city regions: the case of the biomedical industry in Beijing. Geoforum, 75, 186-198.] is available online at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718516300653[doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.07.016]
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May 31, 2016 Word count: 9,935 (main only)
Conceptualizing multiple clusters in mega-
city regions: The case of the biomedical
industry in Beijing
by
Harald Bathelt
University of Toronto, Department of Political Science and Department of Geography and
Planning, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 3G3, Canada;
industry in Beijing Abstract (ca. 150 words): This paper introduces a unique industrial configuration
that has emerged in Beijing, where three economic clusters in the biomedical industry, originally established as industrial/research parks, have developed parallel to each other. This configuration of multiple co-located clusters of the same industry, which has not been discussed before, raises the question of whether the industrial/research parks are competing for the same resources, or whether they are complementary to each other and can collectively be viewed as a new type of industrial configuration. The paper conceptualizes a framework of multiple clusters in mega-city regions that distinguishes between collaborating and competing clusters and presents initial empirical evidence for the Beijing case. As such, this research aims to unravel the phenomenon of multiple clusters in mega-city regions and to understand the complex spatial interrelationships that exist within and beyond multiple co-located clusters in the same industry.
(i) Database of firms. First, we developed a database of all firms in the three
industrial/research parks located in Beijing. This database was established from data
published in industrial park directories, through various government organizations, China’s
National Bureau of Statistics, as well as websites of firms and organizations in the Beijing
biomedical industry. Our final database for the year 2012 consists of 390 biomedical firms in
Yizhuang Park, 112 firms in ZLS Park and 337 firms in Daxing Park.
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(ii) Firm and case selection. Our database and previous research provided the basis
for the identification of intra- and cross-cluster linkages and networks in production and
research. Previous investigations, which permitted us to identify important cases of
individuals, firms and other organizations and their linkage patterns, consisted of four
projects conducted between July 2003 and December 2012 (+Wang et al., 2006; Zhao, 2006;
2010; 2012; Niosi and Zhao, 2012; Zhao and Richards, 2012). Crucial-case information was
complemented by and triangulated with data received in telephone interviews (Seawright and
Gerring, 2008).
(iii) Semi-structured interviews. Between February 2013 and March 2014, we
conducted relatively short semi-structured telephone interviews with 84 biomedical firms
across the three industrial/research parks. The firms were selected as a systematic random
sample from our database, stratified by location, size, type, and country of origin of the firms.
In each interview, we highlighted the confidential nature of this research and decided not to
record the conversations to maximize our response rate. The interviews were with human
resources, technology and product managers and took on average 15 to 20 minutes.
While the case information from previous research provided information about firm-
specific linkages, ownership patterns and investments within and between the clusters, we did
not have direct evidence about the occurrence and intensity of intra- and cross-cluster
interaction patterns. During the telephone interviews, we verified the firm information
collected in our database and asked question about interactions and linkages within, between
and beyond the three biomedical industrial/research parks. The questions focused on the
nature and frequency of cooperation and interaction patterns with suppliers and knowledge-
intensive business services (KIBS), customers, universities, research organizations, other
biomedical firms, training schools and government agencies. Since we were only able to
write-up ex-post summaries of these interviews, we cannot provide direct quotations.
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In the empirical analysis outlined below, we mostly refer to cases of cluster, firm and
organizational linkages identified in prior research; our interview data serves the primary
function of helping us verify our conclusions regarding the existence of intra- and cross-
cluster interaction patterns.
5. Context: Three biomedical clusters in Beijing
The development of the biomedical industry in Beijing can be traced back to the
1980s. Despite this early start, it took until 2002 before the industry took off, benefitting from
strong government support through the “Beijing Bioengineering and Pharmaceutical Industry
Development Promotion Program”. In October 2006, the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) assigned Beijing the status of a national biomedical industry base and
provided financial resources for its development. This included support for the three
biomedical industrial/research parks: ZLS Park, Yizhuang Park and Daxing Park (NDRC,
2006). Due to its rapid growth, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) identified
the industry as one of Beijing’s five pillar industries in 2010 (CASS, 2010). Around the three
industrial/technology parks, three economic clusters developed over time (Table 1):
Yizhuang Park is located in the Southeast of Beijing. The park was established as a
biomedical industry park in 2009 and became part of the Beijing Economic and
Technological Development Area (BETDA). Founded in 1994, the area developed into an
important base for high-technology and other modern manufacturing industries. This was the
site where biomedical firms first started to agglomerate. Firms in Yizhuang Park enjoy
twofold preferential policies as they are part of both a national economic and technology
development area and a national high-technology industry park. In 2012, the park hosted
more than 1,300 firms, 390 of which were related to the biopharmaceutical industry. Many of
the firms are well-known multinational firms from over 30 different countries that invested in
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the city region’s growing bioengineering and biomedical fields. The growth potential of this
industry/research park is, however, limited to the territory of BETDA.
Daxing Park, established in 2002, is located in the Beijing Daxing Industry
Development Area in the South of the city region. The park has excellent infrastructure
conditions and is well-connected to the city region’s traffic networks. It is characterized by
biopharmaceutical production, especially generic firms with integrated technological
innovation capabilities, as well as by a range of other biomedical activities from traditional
Chinese medicine to animal vaccines. The park focuses on manufacturing facilities combined
with R&D and has developed into a world-class location for modern bioengineering and
pharmaceutical production. In 2012, 337 biomedical firms were located here and the park
spanned an area of about 960 hectares (about 2,400 acres). Daxing Park has become the
largest biomedical industry base in the city region in terms of the number of firms and the
size of occupied land. It still has some peripheral areas that are available for future expansion.
ZLS Park was founded in 2000 and is located in the Beijing Zhongguancun
Development Area in the North of Beijing, close to crucial knowledge resources for the
biomedical industry. The park has the highest density of advanced university and research
organizations in China (Zhou, 2008). It was established with the intention of creating a
leading international science park that aims to link life science research with enterprise
incubating, pilot production, biotechnology exhibitions, venture capital funding and specific
training opportunities. ZLS Park is the primary research base for the national life science and
new pharmaceutical high-technology industry. In 2012, the park hosted 112 firms, including
18 subsidiaries/branches of foreign firms. ZLS Park covers an area of nearly 250 hectares and
will be extended eastwards and westwards to a total of 500 hectares (about 1,250 acres) in the
future.
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Overall, the three biotechnology parks experienced substantial growth. By 2014,
Beijing’s biomedical industry had an astonishing 80,000 employees (BMBS, 2015) and was
one of the largest agglomerations of this industry worldwide. The three biomedical parks can
be viewed as individual clusters (and will be referred to as such below) because they integrate
large parts of the respective value chains and support infrastructure, consisting of specialized
suppliers and service providers, research and training facilities, and government organizations
and associations (Zhao, 2010). In our telephone interviews, firms indicated that they had
strong labor market, supplier and research linkages with other firms and organizations within
their parks.
The three clusters, however, are not identical in their structure but have developed
different specializations and functions over time: ZLS Park puts particular emphasis on
upstream R&D activities, pilot production and business incubation; Daxing Park is an
industrial manufacturing base engaged in specialized production activities; and Yizhuang
Park focuses on biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing (Table 1). As will be
demonstrated in the next section, the Beijing biomedical cluster configuration is similar to the
‘collaborating clusters’ scenario depicted in Figure 1, being characterized by internal
production, research and knowledge dynamics but also strong patterns of cross-cluster
networks. While our analysis focuses on intra-metropolitan linkages, it should be noted that
each of the three biomedical clusters also has strong linkages with other regions nationally
and internationally.
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Insert Table 1 about here
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6. Relational ties within and between the biomedical
clusters in Beijing
This section takes a closer look at the relational ties (Bathelt et al., 2004; Li et al.,
2012) that exist within and between the three biomedical clusters in Beijing. Qualitative
evidence is presented from prior and current empirical observations that enable us to identify
a specific cluster configuration in the Beijing biomedical industry. In the first subsection, we
will illustrate that the three biomedical parks in Beijing can indeed be viewed as clusters with
strong internal supplier and service networks. The clusters, although being part of the same
industry, have each developed their own functional specialization with corresponding
knowledge-related services and nearby research facilities. The following subsections present
evidence of systematic cross-cluster linkages and support our hypothesis that the Beijing
biomedical industry is best understood as a configuration of collaborating instead of
competing clusters. This will be shown by investigating networks of firms, government-led
collaborations and co-operations with universities and other research institutes.
6.1 Localized biomedical cluster dynamics
When investigating whether the three industrial/research parks in Beijing can indeed
be viewed as separate clusters that generate their own internal dynamics and networks, the
question arises as to why the multiple-parks structure developed to begin with. In the case of
Beijing, this development depended in large part on industrial policies pursued at various
levels of government, and was therefore a consequence of the strong state capacity
characteristic of a developmental state (Wade, 1990). As Guo Li, the General Manager of
ZLS Park, emphasized in an interview conducted in 2010, the three industrial areas were
purposely developed with the goal of generating specialized biomedical parks:
“(1) The Beijing government applied a strategic policy of multiple clusters as
follows. ZLS Park is characterized by biomedical R&D. Yizhuang Park is
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located in the national economic development zone. Here, the costs of land
and other resources are expensive compared with the other two parks, which is
why we find an orientation on high-end manufacturing activities. Daxing Park,
which has a larger territory compared with the other parks, concentrates on
pharmaceutical manufacturing, especially the core activities of manufacturing
traditional Chinese medicine, medical apparatus and instruments, as well as
animal vaccines. (2) The output value of these three clusters accounts for more
than 60 percent of the Beijing biomedical industry and will reach 70 percent
by the end of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan” (translated and revised from
Chinese).
Dedicated industrial and technology policies induced start-up processes and provided
incentives for the development of specialized KIBS and of other suppliers and service
providers in each of the parks. This was supported by close-by research institutes and training
facilities that fit the specific needs of the different clusters. From this basis, a functional
division of labor developed between the parks that resulted in the establishment of three
distinct functional clusters with specific local labor market dynamics. The telephone
interviews strongly confirmed the existence of close intra-cluster linkages and knowledge
networks. According to our interviews, the following patterns emerged over time:
(1) Almost all of the firms interviewed, whether large or small and medium-sized
enterprises, had close relationships with universities, research organizations, training schools
and KIBS in their respective parks. Many large firms had post-doctoral centers and offered
temporary positions for coop students from near-by universities and colleges.
(2) Many of the firms described themselves as being part of the same park-specific
research networks or alliances and specializing in particular functions and product segments
that were different from those in the other parks. These specializations supported internal
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cluster dynamics with respect to service providers and suppliers, but also generated
complementarities between the clusters. These, in turn, provided the basis for the
establishment of cross-cluster linkages.
(3) Our telephone interviews also provided evidence of close localized knowledge
ecologies in the three parks associated with regular personal meetings and knowledge
exchanges. The park administrations, for instance, frequently organized events, such as
academic presentations, government workshops, product promotions and even entertainment
and sporting activities. These events were all regularly and well attended by local firms and
generated a constant flow of knowledge about what was going on in the industry, the
regulatory environment and at the park in general.
These interview findings show that the biomedical industry in Beijing is organized in
the form of separate clusters that developed their own dynamics. Our interviewees described
highly localized cluster dynamics and identified local biomedical innovation networks. It is,
of course, not unusual that the biomedical industry is highly clustered and shaped by network
forms of organization (Powell, 1990; Podolny and Page, 1998). Similar structures and
tendencies have developed in each of Beijing’s biomedical clusters, driven by linkages
between firms, research organizations and government institutes. Important relational nodes
that encourage such interactions and knowledge exchanges within the three clusters include
the following:
(1) Bacterial cultures originate from key national laboratories and research institutes,
while pre-clinical trials are given to local contract research organizations such as JOINN
Laboratories in Yizhuang Park.
(2) Park-specific industry alliances and associations have developed, such as the
Alliance of Biotech Outsourcing, the BDA Alliance of Innovative Technology Service for
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Biopharmaceutical Industry, the Alliance of Zhongguancun Contract Research Organizations
and the Northern Antibody Industry Alliance.
(3) Technical service platforms have been established in the parks supported by
government programs to provide localized services, including delivery and market
development services, to firms.
(4) Incubators, for instance in ZLS Park, have actively formed innovation chains that
include basic research, technological innovation, industrial support and clinical resources.
(5) Specialized KIBS in the various parks provide crucial services to and are linked
with many, especially local, biomedical firms.
These organizations establish the basic architecture for cluster and network formation
in the three biomedical parks (Zhou and Dai, 2008; Zhao and Richards, 2012). With respect
to KIBS, for instance, more than 100 firms and organizations are located in Beijing that focus
on R&D services for the biomedical industry. One-sixth of all international clinical trials in
China are conducted in the city region, one-fifth of all Chinese drug safety evaluation centers
are located here, and two-thirds of all biopharmaceutical scientists and engineers in China
live in Beijing. This large concentration of research activities goes along with highly
localized linkages and supports local innovation networks. To benefit from this, biomedical
firms locate in those areas that fit their functional and product specialization best. It is not
surprising that many of the firms in a park are attached to the same industry associations and
alliances, a similar mix of shareholders, related university or research institutes and the same
group of leading biomedical innovators.
While the above evidence suggests that we are faced with three separate clusters that
are characterized by specific localized linkages and networks, the next subsections take a
closer look at the relationships between the three biomedical clusters.
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6.2 Complementary specialization and cross-cluster cooperation
Compared with other biomedical clusters discussed in the literature, the Beijing
situation is a special one because it involves both close intra-cluster networking along with
strong cross-cluster linkages that connect three biomedical parks in the same city-region. Our
findings suggest that this case resembles the scenario of ‘collaborating clusters in the same
industry’ (Figure 1). Systematic cross-cluster linkages have been enabled by the development
of biomedical parks that are characterized by complementary specialization, as identified in
our firm database (Table 1). When investigating the biomedical producers, suppliers and
service providers across the three parks, we found a clear specialization pattern: more than
half of the firms from ZLS Park were biomedical R&D firms; almost 60 percent of the firms
from Daxing Park were active in the areas of traditional Chinese medicine, medical
apparatus/instruments, animal vaccine, agricultural biotechnology and veterinary medicine;
and about 70 percent of the firms in Yizhuang Park were specialized on contract
manufacturing with a focus on large-scale medical equipment, chemicals and biological
pharmaceuticals. While ZLS Park focused on attracting research facilities from international
biomedical research groups, Yizhuang Park concentrated on transnational manufacturing
investments and Daxing Park on domestic and multinational innovative firms with
specialized production activities.
Whereas these functional specializations stimulated cluster development in each park,
they were also the basis for the establishment of cross-cluster linkages. Responses in the
telephone interviews suggested that each park developed closely-knit internal value chain
linkages. However, due to complementarities, firms extended their activities also to other
parks in order to benefit from related knowledge pools and sets of competencies.
Interviewees frequently emphasized that such linkages created regular interaction and
knowledge exchanges between the clusters. For example, research facilities and incubators
located in ZLS Park focused on biomedical research and related engineering, but were also
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open to firms located in other Beijing parks, creating cross-cluster knowledge flows.
Similarly, Daxing Park was home to a concentration of national-level organizations, such as
the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, the Institute of Materia Medica (IMM), the
Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Science, the China Animal Disease Control Center
and the National Veterinary Microorganism Center. While these organizations played an
important role for Daxing firms, they were also important contacts and partners for firms
from the other parks and generated interactions between the other parks and Daxing.
Altogether, plenty of opportunities for collaborations and complementary linkages between
the clusters were generated through the specialization of the three parks.
To make full use of the advantages of the parks and their complementarities, firms
established or co-founded subsidiaries or branches in several of the parks – a practice which
promoted close interaction and flows of material and knowledge. We identified numerous
firms with such multiple locations, especially large biomedical firms. Due to their
specialization, each of the clusters offered a set of proximity advantages to different types of
resources, such as technological capabilities, skills sets, research streams or transaction
partners. An example of such linkages is shown in Figure 2. The firm Beijing Medical
University United Biological Engineering Co. (BMUC), which is at the center of this case,
established two research-driven firms in ZLS Park and two manufacturing-centered
biomedical firms in Yizhuang Park. In addition, one of BMUC’s subsidiary firms established
two other firms: one located in Yizhuang Park which focused on production and sales
activities, the other one as an incubator located in ZLS Park to benefit from the park’s unique
innovation and R&D resources. Interviewees pointed out that these corporate linkages created
frequent interactions, material flows and site visits between the parks.
We identified a number of similar cases in our interviews where larger biomedical
firms had invested in several clusters simultaneously in order to take advantage of specific
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talents, preferential policies, land prices and research specializations that were targeted at
different stages of the value chain. In our interviews, these investments were closely linked to
one another and created value-chain-based interactions between the clusters (see, also,
Turkina et al. 2016). They also supported joint research projects between firms at similar
stages of the value chain that belonged to different clusters.
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Insert Figure 2 about here
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These findings clearly differ from the scenario of competing clusters in Figure 1. If
this configuration was prevalent, we would not expect to find such intensive linkages across
the clusters as the different clusters would perform similar tasks and compete against each
other. In contrast, our study provided strong support that collaborative relations developed
between the three clusters, as firms established pipelines in research and manufacturing
across the parks to simultaneously take benefit of various specialized resources. From our
interviews, we identified both intra-cluster dynamics and systematic inter-cluster networks. A
typical pattern of knowledge linkages according to type, closeness and frequency of contacts
for a large biomedical firm in Beijing is shown in anonymized form in Figure 3. The
exemplary biomedical firm in Figure 3 was located in Park A and had important linkages
within the park, as well as with Parks B and C. Intra-cluster linkages involved collaborations
with the administrative committee, a training school and close relations with local KIBS.
Collaborations with training schools and KIBS also extended to Parks B and C and resulted
in cross-cluster training and hiring schedules and knowledge linkages along with
collaborations in research projects across clusters. In terms of cross-cluster interaction, the
biomedical firm also engaged in collaborations with an industrial association, an incubator
and one R&D firm in Park C, as well as with one co-founded subsidiary, one university and
29
research unit and one national institute located in Park B. In our interviews, we found
evidence of numerous similar cases of firms with intra- and cross-cluster linkages, suggesting
that the biomedical industry in Beijing developed into a configuration of multiple
collaborating clusters as indicated in Figure 1.
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Insert Figure 3 about here
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6.3 Government-led development and opportunities for local buzz
Government policies in the development of the biomedical industry in Beijing seemed
to pursue two sets of goals. On the one hand, there was a plan to establish a multi-nodal
structure in the growing biomedical industry that would enable collaboration, rather than
competition, between different localities. On the other hand, targeted policies were put in
place to support the development of self-sufficient cluster relations in each of the industry
parks. Delivery of these policies was facilitated by the strong capacity of the Chinese state,
yet we should not assume that the development was perfectly coordinated and under full state
control (Conlé and Taube, 2012; Zhao and Richards, 2012). The various policies also did not
all start at the same time. While ZLS Park and Daxing Park were founded as government-led
industrial clusters in the years 2000 and 2002, respectively, support in Yizhuang was
launched in 2009 to improve the park’s infrastructure and service platform for biomedical
firms. However, government policies and programs tried to consider the overarching
industrial development plan, as well as complex factors such as land use policies and aspects
of resource access (proximity).
Specific government initiatives drove the development of local cluster dynamics and
encouraged cross-cluster interaction and knowledge linkages. For example, academic
conferences, seminars/forums, government workshops (often associated with the
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announcement of new support programs), product promotions and other collective activities
were frequently organized by Beijing government institutes and the management committees
of the parks. These government events were viewed by firms as important because they
provided access to crucial information about new developments. Not surprisingly, over 80
percent of the firms interviewed took advantage of this access by sending their employees
regularly to engage in this kind of professional activity. Three-quarters of firms sent
employees to government workshops. Several interviewees suggested that these get-togethers
also generated manifold opportunities for knowledge exchanges among firms and led to new
collaborations. At the same time, these events also enabled cross-cluster knowledge flows,
since firms sent their employees regularly to attend professional activities held in the other
parks.
The most important effect of these kinds of government policies was the facilitation
of linkages within the three parks in a way that generated local cluster dynamics. Xiaochen
Zhao, the deputy director for Daxing Park Administrative Committee, explained this for his
park as follows: “We made agreements with two institutes: the National Veterinary
Microorganism Center – a veterinary drug inspection institute – and the National Institutes
for Food and Drug Control – a top-tier inspection institute for human pharmaceutical and
medical equipment. When the two institutes were established in Daxing Park, they had to
offer specialized professional services which prioritized firms located in the park” (translated
and revised from Chinese). The firms we interviewed suggested that the resulting knowledge
economies had the dynamism typical of ‘local buzz’ (Bathelt et al., 2004).
To support cluster development, government policies were designed to attract
specialized biomedical firms to the three parks by establishing research organizations,
regulatory agencies and other facilities conducive to the development of knowledge networks
and inter-organizational collaborations. Daxing Park, for instance, became an important
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reference point for firms from the other parks due its local concentration of government-
related institutes and organizations. These included technology transfer organizations,
industry associations, industry alliances, venture capital organizations, professional services,
training organizations and research institutes. These facilities were beneficial to the entire
range of biomedical activities and therefore for firms in all of the parks. Our interviewees
pointed out that complementary organizations were also set up in the other parks and
generated intensive interactions and mobility between the clusters, leading to longer-term or
project-based collaboration between firms. The combination of these influences supported the
development of a multiple-cluster configuration with systematic collaborative linkages across
the individual clusters.
6.4 Universities and research institutes as technology sources and linkage nodes
A crucial feature of the configuration of collaborating clusters in the same industry is
the development of durable linkages between the individual entities. While shaped and
planned by government programs, the linkage patterns were not controlled by such programs.
They were fundamentally supported and stabilized in decentralized ways by the activities of
universities and research institutes. These provided services to nearby park firms, but had
much wider effects across all three clusters and hence also provided incentives for firms to
establish linkages between the parks. As shown below, these facilities were not just enablers
but played an active role in providing technologies across the clusters and generating cross-
cluster networks themselves.
Since the healthcare, biotechnology and biomedical industries generally have a strong
science base, university research is intimately interwoven with this sector (Pisano, 2006). In
fields with well-developed academic infrastructure, university-related start-up and spin-off
activities have generally become important drivers of industry development (Conlé and
Taube, 2012). Some scholars have found that personal ties and involvement, aside from these
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organizational ties, also play an important role in cluster development and catch-up processes
(Lorenzen and Mudambi, 2013). In China, these kinds of developments have occurred
particularly in the biomedical industries in Beijing and Shanghai. The majority of biomedical
firms have ties with research institutes, sometimes based on technology transfer and
sponsored research. A significant number of firms also have capital relations with academic
organizations. In one type of spin-off, the sponsoring academic institute actively participates
in the development of a firm; in the other type, the institute primarily supports autonomous
entrepreneurial activities by staff members or graduates (Conlé and Taube, 2012). This
contributes to the development of localized biomedical labor markets, as spin-off firms
engage with students from close-by research facilities, for instance by offering temporary
workplaces for doctoral and post-doctoral research.
In Beijing’s biomedical industry, we found that universities and other research
institutes were in similar ways crucial sources for technology development and technology
transfer, and that they were important linkage nodes in the firms’ networks. Their capacity to
perform these functions was driven by the establishment of spin-off firms and the active
licensing and sale of specific technologies to local firms.
Our telephone interviewees pointed out that some leading university scientists with a
strong academic reputation, who had made innovative discoveries, contributed in important
ways to the establishment of cooperation patterns between firms within and across the
clusters. For example, Yunde Hou, the director of the Institute of Virology at the Chinese
Academy of Preventive Medicine, actively contributed to intra- and cross-cluster knowledge
flows and collaborations. Technologies developed under his supervision at the Chinese
Academy of Preventive Medicine provided the basis for him to start two new firms and
establish one share-holding biotech firm. These were located in different parks and created
knowledge pipelines between them: Beijing Yuance Pharmaceutical and Beijing Kawin
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Technology were established in Yizhuang Park, while Beijing Tri-Prime Genetic Engineering
was founded in Daxing Park.
Another example of the centrality of universities and research institutes to the
building of cross-cluster knowledge architecture is the Institute of Materia Medica (IMM), a
part of the Chinese Academy of Medical Science and the Peking Union Medical College
(Figure 4). IMM became a very important source of biomedical technologies and a crucial
reference point for cluster firms located in the three Beijing biomedical parks. Through
wholly- or partially-owned facilities across the parks, as well as technical support activities,
IMM linked up with a large number of organizations and actors within and across the cluster
locations. IMM established a network of R&D centers and science and technology firms
across the Daxing, Yizhuang and ZLS Parks, which developed wide-ranging networks and
collaborations across the Beijing biomedical industry. IMM is major shareholder of three
firms in different parks. In addition, IMM established Peking Union Lawke as a joint venture
and co-founded the National Institute of Biological Sciences, both in ZLS Park. It also
provided technical support to the Beijing National Engineering Research Center of
CapitalBio Corporation and Biological Chip with facilities in ZLS Park and Yizhuang Park.
Additionally, IMM was linked to an affiliated hospital: the Beijing Union Medical Center in
ZLS Park. This resulted in extended interaction and the development of networks both within
and between the clusters. It supported both cluster formation as well as cross-cluster
cooperation through linkages in research, development and production.
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Insert Figure 4 about here
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Taken together, these findings provide strong evidence that the Beijing biomedical
industry is organized in the form of three functional clusters that are self-sufficient and
34
characterized by dynamic internal linkages networks, yet are at the same time closely linked
through systematic cross-cluster investment, manufacturing and research connections, similar
to the scenario of collaborating clusters in Figure 1.
7. Conclusion
This paper has discussed the phenomenon of multiple clusters in the same industry
that are co-located in different districts of the same mega-city region. We focus on the case of
the biomedical industry in Beijing, in which three industrial/research parks were investigated
– Daxing Park, ZLS Park and Yizhuang Park – each of which exhibited strong clustering
tendencies. We identified these as a configuration of collaborating clusters that each have
specialized cluster dynamics, yet are characterized by systematic and complementary cross-
cluster linkages and interactions. While the context of Beijing is that of a mega-city region in
one of the fastest growing economies in the world and in a country where the state has very
high capacity, the situation in other developing contexts may not be fundamentally different
and we may find similar configurations elsewhere. The example of Seoul’s ICT clusters
already indicates that we may be looking at a broader phenomenon. However, it is simply too
early at this point to establish generalizations about the conditions under which such
developments occur and whether this may also be possible in a context without dedicated
government policies.
Although this phenomenon will require more research in the future, one implication
of this paper is that cluster theory needs to be more closely aligned with urban
planning/studies, as the configuration of multiple clusters discussed in this paper is closely
linked to very large urban contexts, infrastructures, labor markets, and so on. Full
investigation of these wider issues is a task, however, that goes beyond the scope of this
paper. Multiple co-located clusters require a minimum urban scale and are associated with
localized spillovers resulting from interdependencies with other urban clusters. Such co-
35
location creates manifold opportunities to develop intra-cluster and cross-cluster linkages that
feed back into urban and regional development. Similar cluster configurations with separate
infrastructures, labor markets and supplier networks are unlikely to occur in a small-scale
urban environment.
The phenomenon of multiple-cluster configurations in mega-city regions can be
viewed, following Phelps (2004), as a new diffuse form of agglomeration. This phenomenon
certainly warrants more discussion about its advantages, as well as potential problems and
challenges, because it differs substantially from the standard single cluster cases discussed
most often in the literature. Challenges can emerge if different urban districts start competing
for the same sets of resources, such as infrastructure and support programs, while positive
externalities through cross-cluster linkages are not automatic. This paper attempts to shed
some light on this phenomenon by discussing two extreme scenarios of multiple-cluster
configurations in mega-city regions. The empirical evidence presented suggests that the
biomedical parks in Beijing can be viewed as collaborating clusters with their own cluster
networks that operate in relation to each other (Parr, 2002). The three parks are each highly
specialized in different R&D and/or production functions and attract different types of
biomedical activities. They also have an infrastructure of government organizations, training
facilities, universities/research institutes and specialized service providers, all of which
generate cluster-specific knowledge networks.
Aside from internal cluster dynamics, we identify strong tendencies for cross-cluster
linkages and knowledge networks. Large multi-location firms, universities and their leading
scientists, as well as government laboratories and organizations, do not only act as knowledge
gatekeepers inside the three biomedical parks (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990), but become
crucial reference points for interactions across the clusters and form active linkage nodes that
connect individuals and organizations across the mega-city region. Leading organizations and
36
individuals are linked to different facilities and branches in different parks and actively
develop networks between the clusters. Overall, the development in these co-located
collaborating clusters is driven by both intra-cluster specialization advantages and synergies
that trigger vibrant localized knowledge ecologies, as well as inter-cluster complementarities
that provide the basis for the establishment of cross-cluster linkages and knowledge networks.
Acknowledgements
This paper was initially presented as part of the Jena Lecture Series 2015 at the
University of Jena, Germany, organized by Sebastian Henn and the Department of
Geography. Aside from Sebastian Henn, Susann Schäfer and the participants of the Jena
Lecture Series, who provided many valuable suggestions, we would like to thank Daniel
Hutton Ferris, Sufyan Katariwala and Peng-Fei Li as well as the Reviewers for providing
critical and constructive criticism on earlier drafts. Special thanks go to the Editor Padraig
Carmody for his guidance and support. This research was funded by the Canada Research
Chair in Innovation and Governance at the University of Toronto and a Postdoctoral
Fellowship by the University of Toronto’s Department of Mathematics. We particularly wish
to thank Professor William Weiss for his generous support.
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Table 1: Basic characteristics of three biomedical clusters in Beijing, 2012
Item
Cluster
Year/date established
Location in Beijing
Biomedical firms (number)
Specific competence
Main function
Yizhuang Park (Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area, BETDA)
August 25, 1994, BETDA; 2009, biophar-maceutical industry park