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The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among a firm’s industrial cluster involvement, organizational learning and its ability to successfully adapt to external environment.

Field survey research method was used, and data were collected from 943 high-technology companies in the USA, China, Taiwan and Sweden. Multiple regression analysis, as well as mediation test, was conducted to analyze the data.

The study finds that being positioned in an industrial cluster enhances a firm’s learning and further leads to a firm’s desired adaptive outcomes.

Using self-reported data could be a potential limitation of this study. It would be preferable to have other forms of data for a study. Further, cross-cultural comparisons are needed to enhance our understanding in this multicultural setting.

The findings provide business executives, as well as policymakers, a new way of thinking in respect to how to develop holistic learning practices and improve inter-firm trust to appropriately adapt to the fast changing environment.

The major contribution of this study is an initial attempt to provide a comprehensive approach in analyzing a firm’s industrial cluster involvement. Further, the study attempts to empirically examine learning and cluster involvement in relation to organizational adaptation.

The research of industrial clusters, trust, and learning can be traced back to early strategic management and organization theory. The purpose of this paper is to review past literature and offer a conceptual framework that is related to industrial clusters, trust and learning.

This study incorporates a literature review to filter key factors of industrial clusters, trust and learning by using a deductive approach to conclude a conceptual framework.

This study provides a conceptual framework which includes a firm's industrial cluster involvement, trust and learning. Based on the literature, inter‐organizational trust may be strengthened due to reduced proximity and better information flow within a cluster. Further, industrial clusters encourage co‐evolution and co‐adaptation that stimulates effective learning practices for clustering firms.

This study uses a literature review and offers a conceptual framework to examine a firm's involvement in industrial clusters with the possible influences of trust and organizational learning. There is a need for empirical as well as statistical analysis to validate the framework and to obtain more insight.

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. As the sum of the benefit of a cluster is of greater value than each individual company or institution, whether to be involved in an industrial cluster to sustain competitiveness and enhance learning is worthy of managers' consideration.

The major contribution of this work is that it 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. Further, this study offers a conceptual framework which brings cluster, trust and learning together for future empirical study.

This study seeks to initiate an attempt to examine empirically the relationship between a firm's industrial cluster involvement, trust, and knowledge obtaining.

A field survey research method was used and data were collected from four international industrial clusters, which consist of 188 company responses. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the data.

The study found that greater involvement in an industrial cluster can enhance a firm's knowledge‐obtaining practices. Further, trust partially mediates the relationship between industrial cluster involvement and knowledge obtaining.

Using self‐reported data could be a potential limitation of this study. It would be preferable to have other forms of data for study.

The findings provide business executives as well as policy makers with a new way of thinking in respect of how to develop a firm's competitiveness in today's global economy by obtaining up‐to‐date knowledge through trusting relationships in industrial clusters.

The major contribution of the work is that it is the first attempt to operationalize the “industrial cluster” construct as well as to create a coherent model that logically links industrial clusters, trust, and knowledge obtaining for empirical test.

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate traditional industrial clusters from emerging consumption‐oriented and destination‐based regional service clusters (e.g. entertainment, service‐based tourism, and convention destination); to develop an analytical framework to examine the impacts of both cluster and network effects in service clusters; and to offer implications for managing service innovation to enhance regional development and global competitiveness.

By applying industrial cluster, strategic network, and value creation theories, this research develops a framework to study value creation in service clusters.

The research concludes that firms' decisions to enter or exit a service cluster depends on the net strategic effects, which is the sum of agglomeration economies (i.e. cluster effects) and the economies of network (i.e. network effects).

Further empirical research is needed to determine the significance of both cluster and network effects that determine firms' decisions to enter the service clusters.

First, firms need to incorporate cluster‐specific elements, such as experience economy, value networking, and service innovation to maximize the consumer's use value or perceived customer benefits. Second, in order to increase consumers' willingness to pay a higher price, firms located inside the service clusters need to adopt strategies, such as product or service differentiation, that increase the perceived benefits or use value of customers. Third, service cluster firms' other objectives should be to minimize location‐specific cost differentials by capitalizing on the positive effects of both agglomeration economies and economies of network. Fourth, public policy implications need to include laws and regulations that encourage and promote innovation and new ventures creation, competition in the marketplace, and capital investment to maximize value creation. Finally, policy makers need to promote high value‐added economic activities in the service clusters in order to maximize consumer welfare.

A growing number of policymakers and scholars have recognized the significant economic contributions from the consumption‐oriented regional clusters. This paper is the first effort to develop an analytical framework to study value creation in service clusters for effective managerial and policy decisions.

The purpose of this study is to use current literature in conjunction with the insights from a detailed analysis of current practice to clarify and extend the knowledge of networks of clusters.

This research is an exploratory study of cluster formation and global competitiveness. By applying cluster and network theory, this study examines critical elements of high‐technology networks and clusters. A case study of two clusters in Taiwan and two in China reveals both intra‐ and inter‐cluster network relationships.

This research concludes that networks of clusters do exist and they carry potential advantages for both firms' and clusters' competitive advantage and innovation. Close network relationships and interdependences of industrial clusters have contributed significantly to the competitiveness of high‐technology clusters in the Asia‐Pacific region.

Further research is needed to determine what conditions best promote inter‐cluster networks and when such networks are likely to generate the most value.

First, the relationship among firms in an industrial cluster may be viewed as not only extended supply chains but also as more complex network forms. Firms in a cluster may work together to co‐evolve for the purpose of enhancing competitiveness. This process is worthy of further attention from managers looking to more rapidly develop the competitiveness of their firms. Second, the industrial clusters offer a relatively favorable environment that allows the participating firms to more easily pool the resources, investments, and synergies necessary for them to become competitive in the global arena. Third, to the extent that specialization may increase comparative advantage, an industrial cluster can concentrate firms and industries in a region dedicated to a particular product or competence. Finally, once a cluster successfully pools the resources and develops the core products and competences, the phenomena of networks of clusters is likely to emerge for participating parties to share complementarities across both national and geographical boundaries.

Most studies on high‐technology clusters are focused on intra‐cluster interaction. This study broadens the scope of analysis to explore the inter‐cluster network structure that enhances global competitiveness of both firms and clusters in an effective and efficient manner. This study offers initial empirical evidences and a number of important insights to assist managers and policy makers in enhancing global competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to construct a process theory of cluster development, in order to complement the many studies focusing on the factors that determine successful clusters.

This theory‐building effort relies on event‐driven methodology, which triangulates narratives collected at different points in time with other documented materials, in order to trace cluster development over a six‐year period. The empirical data are analysed according to theoretical classes formed a priori and anchored in Aldrich's framework of emergence, events and consequences. The idea is to identify critical events that subsequently inform theory development.

The authors show that three critical processes drive sustainable cluster development: the exploitation of current opportunities, the exploration of future opportunities, and processes that facilitate the balancing of the two. Whereas the conceptual focus in the extant literature is on exploration and exploitation processes, the authors find that balancing processes are also critical.

The paper's findings are of practical relevance to private and public policy makers with regard to the management and financing of balancing mechanisms that help to secure sustainable development. The authors will continue to follow the development of this specific cluster in order to identify a wider range of sub‐processes that contribute to the long‐term viability of clusters in general.

This work is original in the sense that it extends March's exploration and exploitation theory, applies it to the inter‐organisational context of clusters, and links the two processes through a process of balancing. The empirical evidence and the methodological approach used contribute in terms of building a “real process theory”, according to Aldrich's specification of an event‐driven research approach.

The purpose of this paper is to study the specialization of regional clusters and their innovative behaviour, in a particular Portuguese region.

A regional case study (Region Centro of Portugal) is used, employing secondary and primary data in order to measure specialized critical mass of a region's clusters and analyze their innovative behavior following the European Cluster Observatory (ECO) methodology.

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 a regional context, and demonstrates how a regional clustering approach is important to understanding the innovative process. Based on an empirical survey, three types of clusters were found: basic, intermediate and advanced.

Among the research limitations is the undersized sample of primary data which does not allow deep findings to be drawn about the innovative behavior of the clusters in a general way. Therefore, future research should focus on this area, extending the empirical analysis presented here to add qualitative indicators on innovative behaviour, to calculate the impact of absorptive capacity in the case of regional clusters.

This study provides a consistent methodology of cluster operation which could be useful for undertaking comparative work within regions' clusters across different sectors and countries, to reinforce the importance of the current discussion of policy clusters, and to identify specific requirements and needs of each cluster in order to improve the quality of decision making and to draw some policy implications.

This paper is the first to measure specialized critical mass of a region's clusters at the enterprise level and to explain cluster innovative behaviour, combining primary and secondary, based on ECO criteria. Furthermore, it provides initial empirical evidence and an amount of significant findings to support managers and policymakers in the understanding of regional and innovation clustering of small to medium‐sized enterprises.

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between knowledge management processes and a firm's ability to adapt to the external environment.

The field survey research method was used and data were collected from 170 high technology companies in China. Multiple regression analysis as well as mediation tests were conducted to analyze the data.

The study found that knowledge acquisition, knowledge refining and knowledge applying are important when a firm is trying to enhance its competence. On the other hand, knowledge creation, knowledge refining, knowledge sharing and knowledge applying are influential when a firm is trying to introduce the next round of innovation.

Using self‐reported data could be a potential limitation of the study. It would be preferable to have other forms of data for a study.

The findings provide business executives as well as policy makers with a new way of thinking with respect to how to develop holistic knowledge management practices in order to appropriately adapt to the fast‐changing environment.

The major contribution of the study is an initial attempt to provide a holistic approach in analyzing a firm's knowledge management processes. Further, the study attempts to empirically examine knowledge management processes in relation to organizational adaptation.