Learning, Innovation and IT-usage – a Research Approach to Regional Development

Regional clusters of companies are becoming an increasingly important focus of government industrial policy makers and researchers. A cluster is a network of companies in an industrial sector where suppliers, customers, consultants, etc. interact together with regional policymakers and universities. Sometimes the individual firms compete, and sometimes they collaborate. The delimited characteristics of a cluster to a regional area and an industrial sector, makes it possible to view the cluster as an arena or laboratory. The concept of regions as laboratories, which is the base for the present paper, does not have a policy orientation. Instead, it stresses the interactive and cooperative aspects, which emerge organically in a regional cluster. The paper presents the formation of a research arena in cooperation between the University College of Borås and the industry organization of Swedish mail order companies for studies of learning and innovations in IT usage within the cluster. The strategy to establish the arena, formulation of research questions and initial experiences are presented. 1