## 5 Discussion of Results and Conclusions  
Based on the configurational comparative analysis, namely, fsQCA analysis, it is possible to uncover the different combinations of factors causing clustered firms to develop a strong technological innovation performance through the adoption of disruptive technologies. From a general perspective, we were interested in knowing why some companies in clusters adopt a disruptive technology earlier than others, and, more precisely, what the consequences of early adoption for those companies are, once this technology is fully available in the cluster. In sum, we focus on a disruptive innovation and its process of introduction into a cluster in order to broaden our knowledge of this unusual innovation development on this specific context. We agree that disruptive innovation can deliver other incremental innovations in a cluster, and consequently, this can open a new venue of research. Nevertheless, the fact that, generally, clusters are much more associated to incremental rather than to disruptive or radical innovations [97] is the main reason which motivates our research. First, as a preliminary conclusion, related with proposition 1, the results stress the existence of an equifinality, represented by a number of combinations of firm's assets to achieve the outcome, that is being a strong technological innovator. In other words, clustered firms can reach a high innovative performance combining different features (more precisely the presence and/or the absence of them). Second, and related with propositions 2 and 3, empirical evidence has been obtained regarding how early adoption of a new and disruptive technology combined with high absorptive capacity is a trigger for firms to reach high results of technological innovation. Our empirical analysis has shown that these two factors are present in most of the paths traversed by clustered firms who perform a high technological innovation. In short, the analysis shows how the early adoption of disruptive technologies, in combination with the absorptive capacity, is a strong determinant of innovation. In our perspective, this knowledge can be profitable firstly for firm's managers, who look to increase the innovative performance of their companies as they recognize innovation as an important drive of competitive advantage and, in short, as a paramount source of value creation. In this sense our results, enabling different possibilities in terms of internal and external capabilities combinations, open a handful of possibilities for them. For instance, it is worth noting that our analysis suggests that size is not a limitation to firms achieving high innovation performance. In fact, small clustered companies may obtain similar performance (in terms of innovation results) to larger ones by different combination of factors including the early adoption of a disruptive technology, the ACAP and R&D expertise, for example. On the one hand, our results show how large clustered companies can benefit from new technology and the ability to detect and assimilate external knowledge to become strong technological innovators, even those without strong R&D capabilities. We highlight, as well, that our results may guide policy-makers who are looking to enhance the performance of their territories. In the literature, there is an emerging consensus drawing special attention to the importance of innovation and networks of innovative companies as determinants of resilience of territories and clusters [98; 99; 100; 101]. In this sense, we explore research acknowledging the influence of innovation in the development of \"the adaptive capability that allows a cluster to make changes to overcome internal and external disturbance and still function with its identity as a cluster\" [99] (p. 4). In doing so, we suggest the important role that early adoption of a new technology by clustered firms may play in the development of resilience at a cluster level and beyond the individual innovation performance achieved by individual firms through this adoption.