Fostering Clusters in the Malaysian Electronics Industry

The meaning of clusters has evolved considerably over several decades. This presentation seeks to use a synthesis of the concept from the time of Mill and Marshall (industrial districts), and Smith and Young on differentiation and division of labour to encompass the work of Brusco, Becatini, Sabel, Sengenberger, Zeitlin, Pyke, Richardson, North, Lorenz, Wilkinson and Piore to extract the influence of socio-economic relationships (a blend of markets and trust-loyalty), and subsequently the contributions of Porter (traditional and high tech clusters) and Best (organizational change, techno-diversity, open-system flows and speciation). This presentation examines clustering in the electronics industry in Malaysia with a policy focus on the embedding environment within which this process has evolved in the two main regions of Penang and Kelang Valley. This presentation was presented at the Latin America/Caribbean and Asia/Pacific Economics and Business Association (LAEBA)'s 2nd Annual Meeting held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 28th-29th, 2005.