ABSTRACT
This chapter’s objective consists of evidencing the necessity of connecting smart specialization with cluster openness and global value chains, in order to integrate fragmented frameworks for analysing a similar phenomenon: cluster evolution and renewal. When referring to cluster openness, this means the entrance of new knowledge, the renewal of technologies and actors, and the upgrading of the local environment and its competitiveness. Empirical evidence hitherto has shown positive effects from cluster openness in global value chains (e.g. Hervás-Oliver and Albors-Garrigós, 2008; Eisingerich et al., 2010) which facilitate learning and contribute to avoiding cluster myopia. Nevertheless, cluster and industrial district literature has focused mainly on the strong tradition of local endogenous development, despite a clear shift in research agenda to understand non-cluster or external linkages within a globalization paradigm.
