The Importance of Natural Resources-Based Industry Clusters in Latin America : The Case of Chile

The chapter explores the role of marketing externalities and practices in clusters of three key natural resource-based industries in Chile, a region in Latin America where limited research has been conducted. The influence of regional clusters and networks in the growth of firms has been a key research theme in the literature. However, it has been mainly concentrated taking an economic geography perspective. One of the objectives of this chapter is to bring a management, marketing, and strategy perspectives to the topic. Following a review of some of the key literature related to geographic colocation, social networking, and regional innovation lessons from a Latin American perspective and especially for the new Chilean cluster-oriented local economic strategy will be analyzed