## 1 Introduction  
In recent decades, a growing amount of research has focused on innovation in territorial contexts like clusters and regions [1; 2; 3]. The intensive relationships in the local context, and the existence of different levels of resources at both systemic and individual firm levels [4], provide clustered firms with opportunities for innovation that may be difficult to benefit from in other different contexts. In short, cluster peculiarities lead to a specific context for firms' innovation. In this paper we aim at finding out the diverse combinations of factors that are present in the clustered firms that exhibit a remarkable innovation performance. Consequently, the context of the research is the cluster, while the object of study is the individual firms belonging to it. More in detail, we develop an approach that is focused on two main potential determinants for clustered firm innovation. First, we address firm positioning in relation to the adoption of new technologies, particularly disruptive technologies [5], and, second, we highlight the importance of individual firm's attributes (i.e., absorptive capacity), which are supposed to be critical in this highly connected context [6]. Following [PERSON] [7], disruptive technologies are those that incorporate a pool of knowledge, resources, and skills with a degree of novelty that threatens to make incumbent technologies obsolete. However, in clusters, simply having easy access to disruptive technologies does not guarantee success, in terms of innovative performance, if firms are not able to exploit them by using their internal capabilities or absorptive capacity [8; 9; 10]. In fact, absorptive capacity can be seen as a reflection of firms' abilities regarding the identification of external knowledge that is valuable, along with its assimilation and commercial implementation [11]. Furthermore, the absorptive capacity has been previously related to several internal skills and practices related with problem solving or the recognition of new technological opportunities and potentialities [4; 6; 12; 13]. Previous studies explained the success or failure of firms regarding the quick adoption of a new technology associated to factors such as the investment in developing the new technology, in-house technical capabilities, or specialized complementary assets [14]. Firm leaders, which normally control the well-established technology, are likely to show less adaptability to disruptive changes. Consequently, they present more difficulties in retaining their dominant position when a new technology becomes the new standard. Their rigid and established organizational routines [15], and their major focus on the benefits offered by existing products [16; 17; 18; 19], are some of the reasons behind this situation. Firms' positioning in relation to the adoption of new technologies for clustered firms has a strategic value in this specific context. In fact, to adopt a technology at an early stage, before the technology can be considered the \"new state-of-the-art\" on the cluster, provides early adopters with a distinctive advantage in terms of technological innovation outcomes. Earlier adoption of the new technology in this context is more valuable due to some inherent cluster factors, such as intense exchange, easy flow of knowledge and ideas, emulation mechanisms, and others, among companies [20]. On the other hand, and also in the previous literature, another traditional explanatory line of how companies differ in reacting to changes comes from their absorptive capacity level [9]. In fact, this firm's internal attribute has been found to be determinant of its innovation performance by an important avenue of research [21; 22; 23]. Although these explanatory factors have been already used in previous studies, even in the cluster context, additional efforts can be made in order to disentangle the diverse configurations of factors, or paths, leading cluster firms to strong innovative performances. Differences among cluster companies are rarely addressed in the literature.