Guest editors’ introduction to the special issue on regional clusters and global competitiveness

Citation

Lee, C.-S., Ho, J.C. and Niu, K.-H. (2012), "Guest editors’ introduction to the special issue on regional clusters and global competitiveness", Competitiveness Review, Vol. 22 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/cr.2012.34722baa.001

Guest editors’ introduction to the special issue on regional clusters and global competitiveness

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal, Volume 22, Issue 2

While globalization and the continuing technological revolution provide a number of challenges to firms today, they also provide many opportunities. This is particularly true for companies in smaller countries that may lack the domestic market necessary for growth and for companies in developing countries with weaker infrastructures and limited supporting industries. Recognizing these insufficiencies and potential weaknesses, many countries have promoted the development of regional clusters where firms can build up their competences and competitive advantages against the world’s best competitors by sharing resources, innovative capabilities, and knowledge.

Many policymakers and researchers have acknowledged the value of clusters in developing advanced technological products and services, as well as promoting regional growth. The initial success of areas such as Silicon Valley in California and Route 128 in Boston has led to efforts on the part of both firms and governments to promote similar clusters in many different locations. By clustering together, firms are able to pull from a common and accessible pool of resources, information, and demand for innovation in order to enhance competences and create competitive advantages in global competition. However, successful development of such clusters may prove to be difficult in many regions or countries.

To improve understanding of the development and impact of regional clusters on firm’s strategy and performance in the global economy, we called for contributions to this special issue that focus scholarly attention on the topic of regional clusters and global competitiveness. The four research papers included in this special issue examine a range of topics related to process, strategy, value creation, and competitiveness of regional clusters. They offer insight into the evolution and specialization of regional clusters and provide multiple approaches to the process of managing innovation within the cluster. The papers also present conceptual and analytical frameworks to assist business executives and policymakers in formulating and implementing strategy and policy that enhance global competitiveness.

The special issue starts with Zettinig and Vincze’s research on constructing a process theory of cluster development. The theory-building effort relies on event-driven methodology to trace cluster development over a six-year period. Their idea is to identify critical events that subsequently inform theory development. The findings of their research show that three critical processes drive sustainable cluster development. They are: the exploitation of current opportunities, the exploration of future opportunities, and processes that facilitate the balancing of the two. The findings are relevant to both private and public policymakers with regard to the management and financing of balancing mechanisms that help to secure sustainable development of the cluster.

Niu et al. have developed a conceptual framework to study a firm’s industrial cluster involvement, trust, and learning. They argue that industrial clusters are widely considered a network-based industrial system with the aim of adapting to fast-changing markets and technologies as an organized whole. Firms within a cluster can work together to co-evolve for the purpose of enhancing competitiveness and entering the world market through effective learning and inter-firm trust. The framework can be used to assist managers in deciding whether to be involved in an industrial cluster to sustain competitiveness and enhance learning. Overall, the paper is the first attempt to produce the measures for a firm’s involvement in industrial clusters for empirical tests which are generally considered insufficient in this area of research.

To study the specialization of regional clusters and their innovative behavior, Ferreira et al. conduct a case study of the Region Centro of Portugal by following the European Cluster Observatory (ECO) methodology. By combining the different nature of data (primary and secondary), this paper identifies the specialized critical mass of a region’s cluster, makes statements about the role of clusters in the regional context, and demonstrates how regional clustering approach is important to understanding the innovative process. The paper also provides initial empirical evidence to support managers and policymakers in the understanding of regional and innovation clustering of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Although the production-oriented and scale-intensive industrial cluster is the focus of the majority of cluster research, a growing number of scholars and policymakers have also recognized the significant value creation and economic contributions from the new type of consumption-oriented and destination-based service clusters (e.g. service-based tourism, entertainment, and convention destination). Hsieh and Lee’s research is the first attempt to develop an analytical framework to study value creation in such a new type of service clusters and offer implications for managing service innovation to enhance global competitiveness of firms and regions. They conclude that firms’ decisions to enter or exit a service cluster depend on the net strategic effects, which is the sum of agglomeration economies (i.e. the cluster effects) and the economies of network (i.e. the network effects).

Research on industrial clusters has flourished since 1990 in various academic fields such as management and strategy, regional development and growth, urban studies, and economic geography. Although the presence of a well-developed cluster provides significant competitive advantages for the cluster firms and strong economic performance for the region, the successful development of such a cluster may be rather challenging. We hope this special issue advances industrial cluster research and provides insightful guidance for business executives and policymakers to enhance global competitiveness of firms and regions. Of course, further research is required to improve the understanding of the formation and evolution of industrial clusters. Finally, we would like to thank many cluster research scholars for their generous efforts to review the manuscripts for this special issue.

Chung-Shing Lee, Jonathan C. Ho, Kuei-Hsien NiuGuest Editors