ABSTRACT

Regional clusters have attracted growing interest among both academics and policy-makers during the last few decades. During the 1990s clusters were widely recognized as important locations for stimulating the productivity and innovativeness of companies and the formation of new businesses. The influential writing of Michael Porter first on industrial clusters (Porter 1990) and then on regional clusters (Porter 1998a) in particular advocates the tight relationships between cluster participation and the competitiveness of firms and industries. In Porter's (1998a, p. 90) view 'the enduring competitive advantages in a global economy are often heavily local, arising from concentrations of highly specialized skills and knowledge, institutions, rivals, related businesses, and sophisticated customers'. The concept of regional clusters is therefore seen to seize at least parts of the mechanisms underlying dynamic industrial development in some places.