Search within or beyond the industrial cluster? The effect of perceived competition and knowledge base tacitness on strategic location choices of external knowledge search

From a knowledge-based perspective, this paper highlights the need for a framework linking perceived competition of the industry and firms' strategic location choices of external knowledge search and examines whether the perceived competition increases the propensity of cluster firms to search more widely from extra-cluster knowledge sources than intra-cluster knowledge sources. Furthermore, we emphasise that cluster firms with varying degrees of tacitness in their knowledge base might respond to such competition differently when conducting external knowledge search activities. Using a sample of 310 cluster firms in the Zhejiang Province of China, we find that the cluster firm would increase the propensity for more geographic boundary-spanning search relative to local search while under the pressure of competition. Moreover, the positive relationship between perceived competition and the propensity towards geographic knowledge search is weaker when the tacitness of the cluster firm's knowledge base is higher. The findings contribute to the understanding of the relationship between competition and the choice of location strategies in external knowledge search.