Creative destruction in clusters: From theory to practice, the role of technology gatekeepers, understanding disruptive innovation in industrial districts

The industrial district (ID) literature assumes that technology gatekeepers (TGs) shape the district learning process and its evolution. However, the analysis of the TGs resilience is absent. Instead, most of the evidence provided is set at a single point in time and considers only one stage of the cluster life cycle (CLC). This paper introduces into the discussion two important influences in order to analyze the dynamics of TGs and the ID evolution: the type of knowledge created (whether it be disruptive or not) in the cluster and the TG resilience across different stages of the CLC. This work responds to the gap that not much is known about the persistence of the TGs across different stages of the CLC. Using qualitative longitudinal case-study research, a world-class ID is analyzed over the last twenty years. The results show that there are new technological gatekeepers when it is a question of bringing in disruptive knowledge. Put differently, incumbent TGs are resilient but unable to create disruptive technologies in order to renew IDs, being more focus on the introduction of sustaining technologies. Results also shed light on the understanding of radical innovation in IDs, a fact almost neglected in the literature.