Cluster-internal and external drivers of cluster renewal: evidence from two German agricultural engineering case studies

The question on how regional clusters renew themselves and start a new cycle of prosperity is of vital interest for affected companies, politicians and regions. Recently, the idea of renewing clusters has been conceptualized within the cluster life cycle (CLC) literature. CLC approaches generally assume that cluster renewal is widely driven cluster-internally through agent capability building processes and the systemic utilization of novelty. Critique from other authors highlights the neglected role of the external environment in the CLC literature. This article sheds light on renewal processes in two German agricultural engineering clusters. It is shown that in the case of a farm trailer cluster renewal can be widely explained cluster-internally, while in the case of a stable technology cluster that diversified into the field of biogas technology, internal factors played a less significant role and much of the development was driven externally by political decisions on the national level. Possible explanations for diverging roles of cluster-internal and external factors lie in the differences in the stage of the novel technologies’ development and the complexity of the novel technology.     

旅游产业集群网络结构及其空间相互作用研究——以杭州国际旅游综合体为例

旅游产业集群的网络构成分为核心网络与外围支持网络。旅游产业集群网络由主体、旅游资源以及旅游活动三部分组成。论文把旅游产业集群网络结构分为原子式、单核式、多核式、混合式等4种形态。论文把旅游产业集群网络结构空间相互作用分为三个层次:第一层次是核心旅游企业之间及相关旅游企业之间的竞争与合作;二是旅游企业和研究机构、地方政府、旅游中介机构及旅游投资机构之间的空间作用;三是旅游产业集群内部主体,主要是旅游企业与旅游产业集群外部成员之间的交流与互动,并以杭州国际旅游综合体为例对这三个层次的空间相互作用进行了分析。     

不同类型产业集群发展中地方政府行为的比较研究

产业集群是当今地方政府发展本地经济的主要政策方向之一。本研究首先从理论上探讨地方政府在经济发展和产业集群中行为动机和特征,其次案例分析内生型的花都区狮岭镇皮革皮具产业集群和外生型的东莞市石龙镇电子信息产业集群发展不同阶段中地方政府的行为方式,然后对比发现两种类型产业集群中的地方政府行为方式与产业集群的形成过程和发展特征相协调,最后总结出不同类型产业集群在不同阶段地方政府行为方式的重点领域,以期为地方政府产业集群政策的制定提供参考。     

Cluster Life Cycles,Path Dependency and Regional Economic Development: Insights from a Meta-Study on Basque Clusters

In this study, we aim at evaluating the role of path-dependent and past-dependent forces in the historical trajectory of clusters. For that purpose, we study the life cycles of four of the main industrial clusters in the Basque Country (paper-making, electronics and information and communication technology, maritime industries and aeronautics) and analyse the factors that account for the origin, development, maturity and, if so, decline of those clusters, considering factors related to both cluster dynamics and the regional environment. Our analysis shows that the existence of a life cycle does not imply a straightforward growth path. Clusters follow multiple growth patterns in their development. The heterogeneity of growth patterns may be, in some cases, due to different initial conditions. However, despite similar initial conditions and/or resource endowments and opportunities for development, we can observe heterogeneous evolutionary patterns. Clusters react differently to the same external shocks (e.g. international demand, global competition and technological change) and evolve differently according to their capabilities.     

Understanding evolution in the Antwerp chemical cluster: the role of regional development strategies

Research on regional economic development increasingly embraces more nuanced perspectives on the evolution of clusters, industries and agglomerations. The extent to which the emergence and decline of clusters can be directed with intentional regional development strategies is, however, a major point of discussion. The article links the cluster life cycle concept to regional development strategies in order to examine the trajectory of Europe’s largest chemical complex in and around the Port of Antwerp (Belgium). This chemical cluster has matured and currently is in a state of stability. Although the cluster did not experience growth over the last decades in terms of new entrants, it did transform internally and maintained its importance as a production centre. Thus, whereas lock-in mechanisms hampered growth, they also prevented the cluster from going into a state of decline. We argue that while regional development strategies stimulated new emerging clusters in the Flemish region, vested interests in the port and associated lock-in mechanisms have resisted such developments in Antwerp. New growth trajectories based on the chemical cluster were therefore difficult to recreate in the Antwerp region.     

Writing up the region: anchor firm dismantling and the construction of a perceived regional advantage in Swedish news media

This study investigates how geographic representations and regional industrial identity in news media are used to mobilize local/regional actors and to attract inward and outward investments by mediating and narrating stories of the recovery and rebirth of a region in distress – that is, how media contribute to economic development in or of the region. The study targets media attention covering the dismantling and relocation of two regionally embedded life science and likewise anchor firms: the Pharmacia and Upjohn merger in Uppsala in 1995 and the closure of AstraZeneca's operations in Lund in 2010. By drawing on the method of framing and content analysis of news articles derived from a public media database, the analysis show that: (a) geographic representation and associations are intensified in times of media turbulence; (b) news coverage follows two subsequent phases (an initial ‘crisis’ phase and a following more optimistic ‘recovery’ phase) and (c) news media (as intermediary actors and arenas) by communicating ideas of a shared regional industrial identity contribute to the construction of a ‘perceived regional advantage’ (as understood and communicated by news media). Thus, regional industrial identity-building and how the region is perceived by internal and external audiences are important for regional development.     

Internationalization intensity of clusters and their impact on firm internationalization: the case of Poland

Existing and dominant perspectives on determinants of firm internationalization have focused on the firm-specific and country-specific factors, paying less attention to the question ‘if and how can clusters foster internationalization of cluster firms’. To investigate this issue, we conducted the study focused on the Polish clusters. First, we conceptualize the impact of clusters on the internationalization of cluster firms by introducing the concepts of the propensity of internationalization and intensity of internationalization. Second, we assess the internationalization intensity of clusters in Poland and check how cluster managers facilitated the internationalization of cluster firms. The results obtained show that clusters play an important role in neutralizing the liability of foreignness suffered by cluster entities. The findings confirm that the need of internationalization which is related to the internationalization propensity emerges over the time as a cluster matures and internationalization intensity is higher in case of more dense clusters. By combining meso- and microeconomic perspectives, this study offers a more holistic approach for studying internationalization processes.     

西方集群和集群政策的研究及其对中国的借鉴意义

自上个世纪90年代末以来,国内学者和政策决策者对集群的集群政策表现出日益浓厚的兴趣。由于现行的集群理论源自西方工业化国家,作为发展中的中国能否和如何吸收运用这些西方理论和研究经验成为讨论的焦点之一。本文的目的是通过探讨西方集群研究和集群政策的理论基础,以期能带给中国的相关研究一些有益的启示。本文首先对波特和经合组织两学派的集群概念的起源、发展和着重点进行了回顾。然后分析了集群起源和发展的条件、生命周期、发展机制、空间维度、类型等西方集群研究的要素,阐述了西方工业国家的集群政策概念及相关评判。相对于发达国家丰富的关于技术创新区域的研究而言,针对发展中国家创新系统和集群的理论性及经验性研究则要少得多。所以发展中国家的集群研究及集群政策需要更合适自身实际情况的理论。最后笔者以集群理论和中国实际情况为例,通过问题的分析、理论的分析和理论的调整三步骤说明新理论发展的可能途径。     

When Firms Take the Lead in Facilitating Clusters

This paper focuses on the role of lead firms and their efforts to facilitate the development of clusters. Several clusters are known for the location of the lead firms that create and shape them, for example, by increasing their skill base, attracting suppliers and creating entrepreneurial activity. However, the literature suffers from insufficient dialogue on the role of lead firms as facilitators of clusters and on how the developmental differences in clusters affect the facilitation performed, and thus the benefits delivered, by lead firms. A key question then is how does the facilitation by lead firms differ in a top-down cluster from that in a bottom-up cluster? The paper is based on a comparative case study investigating the facilitating role of a lead firm within two clusters: Medicon Valley (top-down) and Mechatronics Cluster Denmark (bottom-up). The main conclusion reached is that lead firms in top-down clusters and in bottom-up clusters contribute with quite similar and overlapping cluster benefits, but the way in which these benefits are delivered differs greatly.     

Public policies and cluster life cycles: insights from the Basque Country experience

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the study of the role of public policies in the origins and evolution of clusters. Building on the existing literature, we set up a taxonomy of nine public policies that may have an impact on the emergence and evolution of clusters. Based on in-depth case studies of six clusters of the Basque Country, particularly representative of the industrial history of the region, we analyse the relevance of the different types of policies both in the emergence and evolution of clusters over time. In agreement with cluster literature, the paper concludes that public policies seem to have played only an indirect role across clusters and over their life cycles. Moreover, it points to the necessity of taking history and context into account, as most of the important policy measures highlighted by cluster literature today do not fit well with the previous policy and economic context. Finally, it also concludes that for cluster policies to be effective, the stages of the life cycle should be taken into consideration.     

Cluster Facilitation from a Cluster Life Cycle Perspective

Clusters influence the way firms cooperate, organize and compete, but clusters and their related benefits rarely come spontaneously in a straight line of expansion. It is argued that clusters typically develop in accordance with a life cycle, which includes an evolutionary sequence of steps where actors from the private and public sectors are engaged and where one or more cluster facilitators are coordinating and promoting the process. In the literature, the role of cluster facilitators has almost exclusively been described as static, leaving a research gap about how this particular role changes during the life cycle of clusters. Inspired by that research gap, this paper contributes to the understanding of the relationship between cluster development and cluster facilitation. It brings forward a framework for describing and discussing the exact changes taking place in the role of cluster facilitators, including the facilitation focus, competencies and tasks that they make use of along the cluster life cycle. This investigation is based on a multiple case study consisting of nine different clusters located in Denmark.     

冷战时期中国周边安全环境的特征与启示

冷战时期,中国的周边安全环境不断变化,20世纪50年代,中国的周边环境呈现出北方安全、东南方严峻的基本态势;60年代,中国周边安全形势十分险恶;60年代末70年代初,中国周边安全形势有所改善;进入80年代,中国周边安全环境大大改善。冷战时期中国周边安全环境的阶段性特征表明,国际格局和周边主要国家对华政策是影响中国周边安全环境的两大外部因素,中国对外战略和综合国力则是两个重要内因。事实证明,内因比外因重要。     

产业集群理论的争论、困惑与评论

产业集群理论是近年来在学术界及政策界影响较大的理论之一。但产业集群理论仍是发展中的理论,在国外有很大的争论。本文介绍了西方学者对产业集群的争论,重点分析了产业集群空间界限及划分、产业集群与产业演化及区域发展、产业集群与全球化及产业政策方面存在的问题,在此基础上,进行了理论评述。     

生命历程理论及其在长期空间行为研究中的应用

生命历程理论试图通过时间维度来建构生命事件与社会环境和个体等制约间的互动关系。空间行为研究逐步由形态描述向过程和机制研究转变。生命历程理论为长期空间行为研究提供了较新的研究视角。本文试图将社会空间元素融入生命历程理论中,将长期空间行为自身及其社会空间影响作为事件状态的重要内容,从轨迹、转折点、持续期等角度来分析长期空间行为的发展演化及其社会空间后果,利用事件状态变化的恰当时间(timing)和转折点,把事件状态变化动态地置于当时的历史情境中,分析长期空间行为与社会路线、个体路线之间的内在联系。建议尽快合作开展长期空间行为纵贯调查,加强数据共享和团队合作,这是加强国内人文地理学的微观、动态和过程研究的现实需要。     

The making of mining expectations: mining romanticism and historical memory in a neoliberal political landscape

This paper investigates a greenfield mining project in a peripheral region in northern Sweden through the analysis of how different actor groups formed their own ‘horizons of expectations’ that temporally became fused, only to crumble together with the mining company in a short period of time. By focusing on the co-evolvement of expectations, we show how expectations are differentiated along geographical and temporal scales, reflect upon how these differences relate to interests and historical memory, and finally what these differences mean for the development of large-scale, long-term, raw materials-based projects devoted to industrial production in depopulating areas in an economy otherwise orientated towards neoliberal governance and post-industrial development. By doing so, we make a theoretical contribution to the literature on expectations through the introduction of the concept ‘horizon of expectations’, and a contribution to the literature on neoliberalism and its cultural-geographical implications.     

Capturing gains by relocating global production networks: the rise of Chongqing’s notebook computer industry, 2008–2014

In 2008 a new notebook manufacturing cluster was established in Chongqing in western China. By 2013 it accounted for some 25% of world output by volume. Chongqing’s ability to attract this manufacturing supply chain was driven by several factors that permitted strategic coupling: the existence of complex networks of cooperation and economies external to the firm but internal to contemporary global production networks; changed conditions in southeast and east China; and the creation by Chongqing Municipal People’s Government with central state support of hard and soft infrastructures and externalities that drove down logistic and production costs and permitted constant product innovation.     

The Evolution of Biotechnology in Three Continents: Schumpeterian or Penrosian?

This Editorial introduces the Special Issue on ‘Biotechnology Clusters and Beyond’. Drawing on the interventions of five commissioned articles from Canada, Germany, Israel, the UK and the US it suggests that biotechnology clusters are interesting and important intellectually and for policy deliberation. They pose questions about basic cluster theory because localized networks, though intense, may not be as extensive as global ones in firm practices, especially as these evolve over time. Moreover, innovation is more deeply embedded in the publicly funded science base than for ‘Porterian’ clusters. Regarding innovation, biotechnology is also less obviously Schumpeterian, there being little market-driven ‘creative destruction’, and is arguably, with its strong emphasis on both large- and small-firm ‘capabilities’—Penrosian—an emphasis in clustering research and applications that warrants further investigation. Finally, at the specific technology-exploitation phase, market interactions assert themselves over milieu characteristics because scientists know the value of their discoveries and there is accordingly high appropriability associated with such knowledge capabilities.     

Related variety and the dynamics of European photonic clusters

This article aims at assessing the role of related variety, that is, the relatedness of knowledge bases used by different sectors within a region, as a major driver of clusters’ development. Some recent theoretical papers underline the role of clusters as ‘knowledge platforms’ organizing the recombination of technologies in overlapping industries, following the seminal definition of clusters by Porter as ‘geographic concentrations of linked industries’. In order to investigate the role of related variety in cluster dynamics, we analyse the patterns of development of clusters specializing in photonics in Europe. Photonics constitutes a new and rapidly evolving set of technologies with a high expected degree of technological recombination. However, due to inadequate traditional sectoral classifications, we propose an original method to delineate the perimeter of photonics in patent databases. A two-step algorithm is then used to identify systematically photonic clusters in Western Europe at the local level. In the last part of the paper, a typology of technological trajectories of clusters over the last decades is developed and then correlated with a set of quantitative measures of technological relatedness. The results highly confirm the role of related variety as a major driver of success, particularly for the biggest European clusters.     

中国港口群内部格局与参与全球航运网络联系分析

基于2004-2019年中国沿海港口吞吐量数据,利用市场集中度指数、引力模型等方法对比五大沿海港口群内部竞合关系;结合全球TOP10航运公司2019年航线数据,通过社会网络分析描述各港口群参与全球八大航运区域的空间格局.结果表明:中国各港口群间内部竞争加剧,其中珠三角、长三角、环渤海港口群已形成多中心枢纽竞争模式,而东...     

珠海旅游产业集群的案例研究

在对旅游产业集群理论简要综述的基础上,文章以珠海市为案例,实地调研和深入访谈分析珠海旅游产业集群各要素之间的关系,并构建了珠海旅游产业集群的构成要素示意图,最后利用"钻石模型"评估珠海旅游集群的发展现状。文章充实了国内关于旅游产业集群的实证研究,指出珠海旅游产业集群已经初步形成,并且是一种政府主导型发展模式,但集群要素间进一步的知识和信息联系较少,创新性不足,珠海旅游产业集群属于低端集群,其进一步的完善和升级还需要继续发挥政府的支持和推动作用。