ABSTRACT
The vast literature on industry clusters focuses primarily on innovation regions or sector-specific exemplars with insufficient attention to less successful regions or industries in the mature stage of their life cycle (Scott, 1989; Porter, 1990; Saxenian, 1994; Bathelt and Boggs, 2003). A challenge for such regions is revitalizing mature clusters, perhaps looking for new areas of opportunity that will place it on a new and higher trajectory for future growth and development. Often firms and organizations within lagging clusters are “locked-in” to previously successful routines and practices and are unable to move toward new ways needed to compete at the national or international level. The concept of industrial lock-in is traced to the work of David (1985) and Arthur (1989) and has also been shown to be useful in understanding the behavior of firms in specific regional industry clusters. As noted by Maskell and Malmberg (2007), “proximity matters” and as Cooke (2002) notes, information may be ubiquitous but knowledge is localized. Gertler (2003: 76) makes the distinction between codified and tacit knowledge, and the importance of proximity and “learning-through-interacting” in the transfer of the latter. An industrial cluster can go through a life cycle that can both reflect and contribute to the decline of a region but research suggests that there is not a predictable and deterministic straight line path for all clusters (Belussi and Sedita, 2009). It has been shown that external forces or interventions can shock a cluster into reinventing itself so that it can regain its competitive advantage (Elola et al., 2012; Rabellotti, 1999; Meyer-Stamer, 1998). Universities can be a source of intervention and change. Beyond their traditional role of providing a region with educated and informed citizens there are a number of ways that universities can contribute to regional economic development efforts in general and the economic health of industrial clusters in particular. As a neutral stakeholder, universities can function as a hub for innovation, provide an inflow of expertise and new ideas from outside the region, be a convener of regional stakeholders from across municipalities and industries, and contribute to increasing the level of trust and social capital through the process of network weaving (Benneworth and Hospers, 2007; Krebs and Holley, 2006).
