Abstract
This paper views industrial clusters as complex systems composed of multiple interdependent dimensions, firms and enterprises, organizations. A literature review is used to construct a life-cycle framework for assessing cluster dynamics and guiding related policy development. The framework is erected on seven dimensions along with measures and development related patterns associated with the different life-cycle stages. Examples of policy guidelines are provided across all seven dimensions and by stage of cluster development. Finally, a case study of the South Korea shipbuilding cluster is provided in an effort to illustrate how the framework can be used to analyze cluster dynamics and to guide related policy responses. Conclusions and future research opportunities are presented in the final part of the paper.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
This statement is not to imply that clusters evolve in a linear progression to some end state. Rather clusters seem to evolve in a highly noisy event that often shows trial and err “learning” that may truncate at any point. For example, there are many mining clusters that have had initial take offs in economic growth only to play out and revert to pre-cluster status as global prices decline or the ore lode plays out prematurely.
- 3.
Much of the following description of the evolution of the Korean shipbuilding industry is taken from the paper by Shin and Hassink (2011) and from discussions with senior Korean informed decision makers and leaders such as Dr. Kunmo Chung (2013 and 2014, multiple personal communications) who was the founding director of KAIST and the founder of the Korean Nuclear power industry during several visits to Korea in 2013.
- 4.
Patents are not an ideal measure of innovativeness and it would be ideal to have measures for which there are not so many caveats. However, all that is readily available from archival sources is the patent data.
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Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this contribution was presented 53rd Meetings of the Western Regional Science Association, San Diego, California—USA in February 2014. The author recognizes the support he received from the Directorate General for Research and Innovation: Economic Analysis and Indicators or the European Union in the conduct of research leading to this and other papers regarding clusters and entrepreneurship, and cluster dynamics.
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Stough, R.R. (2015). Cluster Life-Cycles, Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Development with a Case Study of the Korean Shipbuilding Cluster. In: Nijkamp, P., Rose, A., Kourtit, K. (eds) Regional Science Matters. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07305-7_12
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