Spatial Knowledge Strategies: An Analysis of International Investments Using Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)

Abstract

Knowledge generation is often viewed as a direct outcome of spatial proximity or other social affinities between firms. In rejecting structural interpretations, this article emphasizes the crucial role of agency in orchestrating knowledge transfer and generation over space. We explore how firms strategically leverage the uneven geography of knowledge in international investments and identify four spatial knowledge strategies according to the direction of knowledge flows and mode of connection: knowledge replicating, scouting, connecting and integrating. Drawing from a relational perspective, we develop four propositions to investigate how these strategies are configured in specific spatial settings. It is argued that replicating and scouting strategies occur from clusters to non-clusters and from non-clusters to clusters, respectively, while connecting and integrating strategies take place in cluster-to-cluster contexts. Adopting fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), an investigation of 49 headquarters-subsidiary linkages between Canada and China substantiates the four knowledge strategies and their spatial configurations and shows how spatial structure and agency are fundamentally intertwined and influence each other.