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This paper aims to analyse the impact of clusters on development and growth at the firm and regional level in Latin America (LA). The past 20 years have witnessed an acceleration of cluster initiatives, assuming their positive impact on firm performance and regional development. However, theoretical development and empirical meta-studies in emerging countries to validate this assumed relationship are scarce.

This paper reviews empirical evidence from a population of 123 studies and a sample of 45 empirical studies including 216 clusters in LA.

It concludes that clusters contribute to both development and growth at the firm- and regional-level contingent to factors such as cluster stage of development, collective efficiency, the pattern of governance of the value chain and the sector in which the firm operates; however, clusters are also a potential source of socio-economic divides.

Therefore, these results qualify the conclusions of studies of clusters in developed countries (Porter, 2003; Delgado et al., 2010).

The purpose of this paper is as follows: studying a case for technological innovation in Iran; studying the process of network creation; studying different challenges in finding, forming and performing of a collaboration network; studying comprehensive identification and analysis of the challenges in the network creation process; studying an active collaboration network in the field of medical equipment; and studying a network with different partners (consisting of a large company, a small- and medium-sized company, two subcontractors, three universities, a start-up, an accelerator and a venture capital fund).

The qualitative research method has been used because of a deep and rich analysis of the studied network. The study also provides an overview of finding and forming of partners and details of collaborations in the network, including partner’s goals from network entry, initial negotiations between members, business plan, shared resources and final results are expressed. The data used in this study has been collected by a totally seven semi-structured interviews. To analyze the collected data by open coding, the MAXQDA12 software was used and the basic concepts were identified and were categorized based on their similarities.

The studied network was identified as a strategic alliance. Details of finding, forming and performing of the studied network were explained. In total, 4 collaboration models and 28 different challenges in the network creation process were identified. In total, 28 different challenges were divided into 7 categories (based on their existence or absence in each of the 4 identified collaboration models). In total, seven categories of challenges were analyzed completely and the relations between challenges and partners of collaboration models were studied.

The collaboration network studied in this research involves several technological collaborations among different actors. Saadat, as the hub of this network, has been involved in all these collaborations, and other members have joined the network in accordance with network requirements and their capabilities. This network has been formed and developed with the aim of developing and producing various modules of vital signs monitoring since 2009. Some of the collaborations in this network, which are for production of a specific module and require long-term collaboration between the partners (such as the production of electrocardiograph or heart attack rapid diagnostic module), continue to be ongoing and some of them that focus on research and development or acquisition of technical knowledge (such as academic collaboration) after the specified result has been ended.

Since a teacher's identity is the result of ongoing discussion, explanation, negotiation and justification, famous education quotes were integrated into a language teacher practicum in a teacher education program in the northwest university in Taiwan. This study aims to explore the influence of discussing education quotes on 10 English as a foreign language student teachers' professional identities. This study also aims to discuss the following research questions.

This case study focused on 10 student teachers' identity construction in a practicum class under one advisor. According to Merriam (1998), a case is a “thing, a single entity, a unit around which there are boundaries” (p. 27). The case was a practicum and the unit of analysis was participants' identity construction.

First, reading and discussing famous quotes was a useful “discourse” and “language” for student teachers to construct and negotiate their identities. Second, through the integration of reading and discussing quotes, participants revealed more professional identity in knowledge and expertise, particularly in English instruction in the post-test.

This study examined the influence of discussing educational quotes of 10 students’ professional identity. However, given the nature of the study, there were some limitations. First, although the small sample size offered rich data through observation, artifacts and pre-and post-tests, it restricts our ability to generalize the results.

This study is highly practical (i.e. learning by discussion) and strongly interactive among the participant in a professional and social context. The conceptual framework in Figure 1 presents a theoretical framework supporting reading and discussing quotes as the discourse for the student teachers for their professional identity construction. Social context and relationship shape their professional identity (Izadinia, 2013). Student teachers spent much of their time with their cooperating teachers and administrators in their cooperating schools. In order to foster student teachers’ professional identity construction, it is recommended that student teachers should be encouraged to read and discuss educational quotes with teachers and administrators in their cooperating schools as a mean of professional dialogue and learning.

In this study, it was argued that educational or English teaching quotes could be used as viable, effective and appropriate materials in documenting student teachers' professional identity construction out of their classroom practice in their practicum. The findings of this study derived from the nature of 10 student teachers' professional learning via discussing famous education sayings, and professional learning took place during the practicum.

Most of the studies reviewed above were small-scale and qualitative case studies. Some involved only one or two single cases (e.g. Antonek et al., 1997; Calandra et al., 2006; Camp, 2013). Only a few studies were analyzed and explored based on theoretical frameworks (e.g. Chasteen, 2015). No explicit references were made to any theoretical frameworks in most of the studies. This study included both qualitative (observation and artifacts) and quantitative data (pretest and posttest) to explore the influence of discussing education quotes on 10 student teachers' professional identities and reflective practices.