ABSTRACT
The study of regional clusters is a core research topic in economic geography (Markusen,
1996; Martin & Sunley, 2003; Maskell, 2001). Starting from research on industrial dis-
tricts (Becattini, 2002), the focus has been on the factors that make clusters distinct
from spatially dispersed economic activities (Porter, 1998). These studies described the
prerequisites of clusters, how particular clusters function at a particular point in time,
and how the institutional setting of one place leads to differences in the functioning of
clusters at another place (Saxenian, 1994).
