Abstract Focused on the technology authority system and the hierarchy within the cluster, and with the case study of LED sub-cascading-style manufacturing cluster, the paper attempts to analyze the mechanism of technology authority to cluster innovation and upgrade. It applies the methods of questionnaire survey and find a new prospective, other than the traditional macro prospective of global value chain, of cluster hierarchy pattern. The paper analyzes the interaction and coupling mechanism between Zhangjiang LED cluster technological leaders and local innovators, with core study in leaders' methods of direct control, standardization, outsource and technological spillover,and generalize the rules of cluster upgrade in advanced manufacturing industry in developing countries and regions, especially in terms of the technology authority relations, attendants'interaction and power evolution trend. The study shows that: the LED cluster in Zhangjiang Hitech Park is a typical sub-cascading-style cluster, and on evolution to the innovation-driven stage. This paper also draw the following four points through the theoretical and the empirical research: Firstly, the hierarchy of authority in developing countries and regions in the cluster is difficult to break through, which performance for the bottleneck of innovation. Secondly, in different types of industrial clusters, the technology authority has different characteristics of the power links. Thirdly, multinational companies in the semi-hierarchical cluster play a special role in innovation and upgrading, they mingled hope and fear to the host country through technology control and providing help. Fourthly, the existing evaluation index system of innovation in industry clusters think over more about indicators which include scale of cluster, investment, output value, R&D, and so on.
2013, Vol. 28 
