Knowledge Governance in an Industrial Cluster

Abstract

The study is situated in the debate about ‘knowledge for development’ by looking at the inter-linkage of academia-industry-government in the Indonesian science system. The research is based on 10 months of fieldwork conducted between 1^st of May 2010 to 25^th of February 2011 in Jakarta Metropolitan Region (JMR) and in Jababeka Industrial Cluster, Indonesia. It is a participatory, ethnographic and multilevel research, starting with large areas then scaling down to smaller areas and population. Specifically the methods employed during the fieldwork were: (1) participant observations, (2) in-depth interviews, (3) focus group discussions. I complement the analysis further with secondary statistical data. It builds its analysis and field data collection from the extended case method. The main question of the research is how is knowledge produced, shared, and governed between academia, industry and government in Indonesia? The thesis has three key objectives: first is to analyse the science policy in the normative and social facets, and the progression of regional autonomy in the regional facet, second is to examine the existing linkages of knowledge flow and the importance of location for the industrial cluster, third is to observe the academia’s knowledge production and knowledge sharing, including the process of knowledge exchange with industry.<br /> The thesis tells the story as to how and why there persists a divergence of the linkage of academia-industry- government in the Indonesian science system. This divergence constrains the capacity of the Indonesian science system in localising the (global, tacit) knowledge from the supply chain linkage. I contend that the science system in Indonesia is centralised. The institutional (normative) space where the state manifests itself depict a control in the grip of the thematic research agenda, fragmentation of policy enabling academia-industry collaboration and active alliance building with other countries, namely Japan, to pursue economic growth. The role of Jakarta as the centre pulling the control is reified in the social space as manifested in the policy as practices. The features are resources (particularly human capital and research funding in the science system) being scattered, the structure reinforces preferences for small projects, cheap labour and natural resources. Jakarta functions as the centre, controlling academia’s production of knowledge. Next, the regional facet analysis of the splitting of the administrative region (or <em>pemekaran</em>) shows how the progression of regional autonomy is enabling the competition of resources among the bureaucratic elites. This brings back the centralisation process in the Indonesian science system. The industrial cluster study reveals how tacit knowledge is governed and the importance of location - all of which are shaped by the supply chain linkage. The Jababeka Industrial Cluster is shaped by the supply chain linkage and thus, lacks the capacity of a knowledge cluster. Despite this, there is an uneven spatial progression forming a core-periphery structure and existence of ‘nested clusters’. As it functions more in terms of its location to facilitate the supply chain, the cluster output is likely not to be new part or product development, but tacit experiential knowledge for the production process. The tacit knowledge for the production process is, by large, controlled by the hierarchical vertical Japanese <em>keiretsu</em> [<em>Keiretsu can be defined as ‘hands interlocked in a complex networked of formal and informal interfirm relationships’ (Hatch Yamamura 1996: 69)</em>] linkage. The horizontal collaboration between academia-industry is restricted and limited. The potential of the cluster rests upon the embedded horizontal linkage among industries in the ‘nested cluster’ in the spatial peripheries. The academia is pulled towards the bureaucratisation and/or liberalisation process. The argument is based on organisational analysis of President University (PU) and ATMI Polytechnic Cikarang – both are located in the Jababeka Industrial Cluster. The analysis of President University (PU) shows how it has a lack of control over its resources, and second, the emphasis on maintaining academic decorum in the everyday business of running a university. This is the bureaucratisation process. The investigation of the ATMI Polytechnic Cikarang divulges how the intended production-based education system shifts into an education based on the production system. The entrepreneurial facet of the organisation subsumes the logic of the knowledge production and sharing, making it function as an industry. This is the liberalisation process. <div> <div id="ftn1"> </div> </div>