ABSTRACT
Antwerp diamond district after being severely reduced during the Second World War.
Henn and Laureys (2010) focus in their analysis of the district’s re-emergence on the
role of some key persons, like two diamantaires, a representative of a diamond extraction
company and a politician. Their strategic actions included securing the supply of rough
diamonds to Antwerp and reducing and even stopping the supply to some competitor
areas. The importance of key persons is also accentuated by Ferrucci and Porcheddu
(2006) in their analysis of the emergence and growth of the ICT cluster in Sardinia,
“which is a story of a few key figures (regional policy-makers, scientists, entrepreneurs,
etc.) who contributed, in various ways” (p. 204). The cluster started with the establishment
of an R&D institute in 1990, initiated by some regional policy-makers. The R&D institute
created advanced scientific competence, acquired by a number of junior researchers. The
competence was employed by a Sardinian publisher and entrepreneur who started a
pioneer company in web publication. The pioneer firm was soon acquired by a large
Italian company and downsized, which triggered many spin-offs by former employees.
Another large Internet communication company soon arose, partly started by entrepre-
neurs from the pioneer firm, which spurred the establishment of further ICT firms in Sar-
dinia.
