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Effects of Being Located in a Cluster on Economic Actors

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Book cover Agglomeration and Firm Performance

Part of the book series: Advances in Spatial Science ((ADVSPATIAL))

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Abstract

The greatest assets of clusters are their positive external effects or knowledge spillovers generated through the colocation of firms of the same or similar industries. These externalities can have a positive influence on various performance indicators, not only for firms inside clusters but for the entire region in which clusters are embedded as well. However, several empirical studies show that these positive results do not always manifest themselves. Moderating effects such as industry- or country-specific as well as cluster- and firm-specific characteristics play important roles. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to provide an overview on the effects both inside and outside of clusters identified in empirical studies, thereby investigating the following indicators: innovativeness, productivity, employment growth and wage level, entrepreneurship, survival probability and growth of start-ups as well as resilience.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a detailed overview, see, for example, McCann and Folta (2008) and Sedita et al. (2012).

  2. 2.

    The authors however recognize that there also is a vast amount of case studies dealing with the effects of being located in a cluster (e.g. Saxenian 1994).

  3. 3.

    Clusters that benefited from the public support “poles de competitivité”, which started in 2005 (Martin et al. 2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Dirk Fornahl, Nils Grashof & Cathrin Söllner

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  1. Dirk Fornahl
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  2. Nils Grashof
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  3. Cathrin Söllner
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Correspondence to Dirk Fornahl .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipto. Scienze Economiche, Marco Fanno, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy

    Fiorenza Belussi

  2. ESIC Business and Marketing School, Madrid, Spain

    Jose-Luis Hervas-Oliver

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Fornahl, D., Grashof, N., Söllner, C. (2018). Effects of Being Located in a Cluster on Economic Actors. In: Belussi, F., Hervas-Oliver, JL. (eds) Agglomeration and Firm Performance. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90575-4_2

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