Disambiguates theories of industrial clusters by providing a framework of three ideal-typical forms of clustering: the classic model of pure agglomeration, the industrial-complex model, and the social network or club model. The first two of these models come from classical and neoclassical...

This paper provides a critical examination of the widely disseminated view that innovation in all or most activities is favoured by certain common characteristics in the local `milieu`, involving a cluster of many small firms benefiting from flexible inter-firm alliances, supported by mutual...

This paper discusses the institutional and organizational assumptions underlying many of the currently popular notions of industrial clustering. By adopting a transactions costs perspective, we explain that there are three fundamentally different types of industrial cluster. We then discuss how...

The concept of industrial clusters has attracted much attention during the past decade, both as descriptive of an increasingly important phenomenon and as a basis for effective public intervention in the economies of lagging city-regions. However, there is much ambiguity in the way in which this...

This paper provides a critical examination of the widely disseminated view that innovation in all or most activities is favoured by certain common characteristics in the local 'milieu', involving a cluster of many small firms benefiting from flexible inter-firm alliances, supported by mutual...