This paper develops a simulation model of the behaviour of clusters in the face of bifurcation events in their environment. Bifurcations are understood as the regional equivalent to Schumpeterian creative destruction. The model investigates the role of decentralisation and co-ordination for the...

The present paper investigates the role of decentralisation for the adaptability of production networks in clusters. It develops a simulation model able to test to what extent decentralised, networked clusters with many small firms (Silicon Valley) can be more adjustable than those composed of...

A widespread assumption in economic geography and the economics of innovation is that firms located in clusters benefit from territorial learning and knowledge spillovers. However, it remains unclear to what extent these benefits actually occur. This paper aims to address this issue and examines...

Over the past two decades, the notion of ‘emergence’ has attracted increasing attention and controversy across the social science, including economics. Within this context, as economic geographers, our concern in this paper is with the usefulness of the idea of emergence for studying the...

Cluster policy is recognized as one of the pivotal elements of state-of-art innovation policy. State support for clusters helps to take into account regional peculiarities and engage the most innovative local actors into the process of innovation policy drafting and implementation. Cluster...

This study examines the case for cluster policy. This case is theoretically ambiguous and empirically very weak.