Social Capital, ICT Use and Company Performance: Findings from the Medicon Valley Biotech Cluster

This study explores how some kinds of ICT uses, as well as social capital and other means of access to knowledge resources, are related to company performance in a knowledge-intensive business cluster. Data were collected through a survey of companies in the Medicon Valley biotech region located in Denmark and Southern Sweden. Responding companies included established producers of biotechnologyrelated products as well as small biotechnology start-up firms emphasizing research and development. The results suggest that when ICT use was aimed at accessing and enhancing human and intellectual capital, such as use of online databases for recruitment, intranets to enhance employee access to information and education, and collaborative tools to connect with off-premise researchers, companies reported better performance outcomes. Social capital in the form of connections to people who can provide access to information and opportunity predicted company performance, particularly for small start-up companies. The pattern of results complements prior work that establishes the importance of social capital in regional business clusters by demonstrating how ICT use complements personal relationships to enhance the likelihood of success among companies in the region. Corresponding Author: Ada Scupola, Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies , Roskilde University, Box 260 DK-4000 Roskilde , Denmark , Tel: + 45 46 74 25 98 , Fax: + 45 46 74 30 80 , email: [email protected] For presentation at the International Conference on Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities (OLKC), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, April 26-28, 2009