**1. Introduction**

In today economy's, knowledge becomes more and more critical for organizational survival and competitiveness. Both researchers and practitioners have emphasized the need to develop, refine and access to knowledge to ensure the innovative capacity of organizations [1, 2] and hence their competitiveness. In this context, mainstream literature on knowledge management considers that process which leads to knowledge creation and innovation requires to cooperate with actors inside and across the boundaries of organizations. The success of certain innovative regions such as Silicon Valley and Route 128 of Boston, which argue that these industrial location models or clusters are a source of economic progress for the local communities' regions and consequently the nations, sheds light on the localized nature of innovation. In fact, the clusters are seen as the driver to the development of knowledge economies based around innovation [3–5]. In this way, innovation is seen more and more as a social, collective and localized process.

The literature on clusters provides useful insights that explain the factors that enhance knowledge creation and innovation within the cluster. Most of these research analyses the role of proximities in facilitating the collaboration and

knowledge sharing. However, despite the widespread expansion of research on concepts of cluster, recent studies emphasize the current analytical shortcomings and the failure of conceptualizing innovation in contemporary societies [6], the lack of understanding the dynamics of collaboration within the cluster [7–9], and the little known in the explanation of the link between knowledge ties and proximity within the cluster [10]. As cluster enhances innovation by facilitating knowledge creation, the aim of this research is to shed light in the factors that bolster knowledge sharing between partners. To do so, we draw from research on cluster and knowledge management to analysis the factors that enhance and impeded the interorganizational knowledge sharing. In the sections that follow, we first review research on collaboration, cluster and knowledge sharing highlighting the factors that foster or impede the interorganizational knowledge sharing within a cluster. Section 2 explains the methodological framework used for this research and in the final section we summarize the findings as well as future research directions.
