ABSTRACT
Introduction Industrial clusters have been playing an important role in stimulating regional economic development and strengthening the local-global linkage in China since the 1990s. The formation and growth of industrial clusters have taken place within the context of ownership reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the rapid development of private economy along the coastal provinces in China. Some of them have exhibited similar features to those in Italy (Wang 2001). The phrase – ‘small commodities, big markets’ – is often used to describe the rapid economic growth in Zhejiang province, East China. These commodities used to be mainly daily necessities with small scales of production, limited technology content and lower cost of transportation. The formation of industrial clusters in rural areas of Zhejiang province was demonstrated by hundreds of family workshops engaged in the same industry and agglomerated in neighbouring villages or towns (Shi et al. 2004).
