Local Networks of Collective Learning

This thesis aims to demonstrate to what extent local networks of collective learning appeared at the Leiden Bioscience Park. The concept of collective learning, which enables actors to generate or facilitate innovative behaviour, is seen as an important approach for explaining the causes of innovative capabilities within a cluster. The Leiden Bioscience Park, which originates from the 1980’s onwards, is a highly facilitated knowledge cluster that is fully dedicated to life sciences. It shows an ongoing growth in terms of employment and number of firms. On the basis of patent data, a longitudinal analysis of the co-inventorship network of the Leiden Bioscience Park is constructed. By using network properties a reconstruction of the development of the park is made in order to determine the potential networks of local collective learning. However, this study indicates that the potential for local collective learning is far from being exhausted.