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Working paper serie RMT (WPS 10-11) , 28 p.; International audience; This article investigates how anchor firms sustain high tech clusters rejuvenation by means of technological pre-adaptation. Based on evidences are drawn from the comparison of the evolution of two nano-electronics clusters, i.e., Grenoble (France) and Catania (Italy) clusters which are sharing the same anchor tenant firm STMicroelectronics. Cluster rejuvenation comes from pre-adaptation of actors (scientific and technological diversity), competition amongst anchor tenant firms, competition and overlap amongst networks and the mobilization of sleeping anchors tenant organizations to renew actors and technologies. As soon as the process of specialization (asset specificity, network specificity, technology speciation) starts, it is important to stimulate pre-adaptation to avoid lock-in of the cluster on one technological trajectory

The purpose of this report is to scrutinize the development of the microelectronics and nanotechnology cluster from an original anchor fi rm perspective and to examine the processes through which the roles of anchors and their networks of relationships with the most important players of the cluster evolved over the last quarter of the century. On the ground of the analysis of archival data, internal documents and reports, academic publications, and personal interviews with key managers, researchers, and crucial actors from both private and public sides – performed coherently with the snowballing method – the report identifi es the emergence and development of the microelectronics and nanotechnology cluster in the Catania regional area, the main actors involved, and the relationships they have nurtured. Specifi cally, the report offers detailed historical cases of the anchor fi rms and organizations that, over the last quarter of a century, have fostered the development of the microelectronics and nanoelectronics cluster. It offers as well a discrete social network analysis of the internal networks of the main anchor fi rm that has been present in the Catania area for the last two decades; i.e., STMicroelectronics. Recommendations and implications for policy makers for fostering microelectronics and nanotechnology activities in the area of Catania conclude the report. The reminder of the report is organized as follows. Section 2 depicts the main features of our research setting, i.e., the Catania microelectronics and nanotechnology cluster. Section 3 illustrates the data collection process we adopted in the case studies and social network analysis, and shows the research design process. Section 4 presents the results of an in-depth longitudinal analysis of the emergence and development of the microelectronics and nanoelectronics cluster in the Catania area. Section 5 investigates the development of the microelectronics and nanotechnology cluster from an original anchor perspective. In particular, for each of the three temporal brackets according to which we split up the cluster lifecycle (i.e., 1987-1993; 1994-2004; 2005-2009), it identifi es the anchor/s and discusses the changing role they have played. Section 6 closely analyzes the structural confi guration of the STMicroelectronics networks in order to grasp the area’s innovation output and local development spawn by the relevant actors’ interplay. Finally, Section 7 eventually advances a set of recommendations to policy makers.