Similarity Between the Cases
Intervention in learning the initial conditions aims to learn and share them and foster the felt-need by involving the parties concerned through collaboratively observing and understanding (Dickens & Watkins, 1999).
First, all cases show that surveys to understand the initial conditions were conducted by the core parties involved in the foundation of the management layers. These are the state government (in the case of NRW and Bavaria), the affiliated organization of the state government (Bavaria), the city government (in the case of Mannheim in BW), and the core staff of the management layer (all cases). Learning the initial conditions helps individuals reflect on and obtain new insight into the totality of the situation (Burnes, 2004). In reality, the survey helps them learn about macro and micro environments (Bryson et al., 2006; Bryson et al., 2015; Chen, 2008; Gray, 2008; Whetten, 1981) and social networks (Granovetter,1985; Gulati, 1998; Gulati & Gargiulo, 1999; Lazzarini et al., 2008) related to the business in the medical technology field. Based on the survey, they could grasp the industry’s growth potential, clarify the challenges to overcome, and then justify supporting the industry’s promotion and the cluster organizations’ foundation.
Second, concerning how to foster felt-need, the core parties described above tried to involve key stakeholders from industry and academia through convening, approaching, and inviting them as key constituent members (for example, board, committee, and contracted external expert/advisor). As Dickens and Watkins (1999) explain, this is to involve parties concerned and foster the change. In reality, the stakeholders collaboratively participated in the process to share and learn the initial conditions, discuss, and share felt-need and direction toward launching the activities of the management layer. This, in turn, facilitates cross-sectoral collaborations.
Finally, after a certain period from launching activities, it is also observed that the management layers lead to recognizing the change in the business environment (including change in the initial conditions), feedback from members, and activities experienced. Therefore, in this stage, members from industry and academia are also directly/indirectly involved in learning about the change and fostering the felt-need for the new and reconceptualized direction. This leads to the refinement of the field (Itami, 1999), as shown below.
Difference Between the Cases
The difference is observed in the path to learning the initial conditions, the path to fostering felt-need, and the actor who facilitate fostering felt-need and involve key stakeholders. In the case of NRW, the felt-need for the foundation of InnovativeMedizin NRW and promoting state-wide cross-sectoral collaborations was fostered through bottom-up interaction between the three local cluster organizations. Then, the three cluster organizations requested (and involved) the state government for support and jointly surveyed to grasp the initial conditions and justify the foundation of InnovativeMedizin NRW. In the case of Bavaria and BW, the public sector (the state government and Bayern Innovativ in Bavaria, the city government in BW) conducted a survey first and grasped the initial conditions., then targeted medical technology as one of the industries to promote. Moreover, through providing places to interact or approach, they involved key stakeholders from industry and academia, etc., and facilitated fostering and sharing felt-need toward the collaborations for promoting the medical technology industry.