IDENTITY, ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTIONING OF A FRENCH PHOTONICS CLUSTER THE CASE OF OPTX
The work of producing knowledge and skills cannot be done by professionals alone. How are knowledge, technology, or management systems established? This research focuses on various actors who work in industrial clusters in the knowledge creation process, by observing the "space" in which they are involved. This paper is a monography on the functioning of a 'competitive cluster' namely OPTX, a photonics technology based cluster located in the South of France. The survey was carried out with qualitative methods such as fieldworks and personal interviews during 2017 2018. The OPTX cluster is a community composed by companies, labs, institutions of higher education and innovation partners. Considered as one of the European top class competitive clusters, it plays a key role both in industrial development and in technological advancement in the field of optics/photonics and image processing. To forge an 'ecosystem' favorable for the development of SMEs (Small and Medium sized Enterprises) the cluster works in different fields of strategic activities (science industry collaboration, patenting, marketing etc. targeting high potential growth markets. It was found that for SMEs, OPTX plays the role of interface with the major groups and outsourcers in the photonics sector.