Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and outward MNE investment into and from a locality itself may foster
changes over time in the local economic environment. This is not to say
that all industrial clusters and regional systems are directly involved in
the creation of new knowledge or that the evolution of clusters is a simple
linear and deterministic process, as these issues have to be established by
observation and analysis. Indeed, as we have already maintained, inno-
vative firms are not necessarily clustered together in space, and neither
are clusters and regions necessarily innovative systems. Moreover, in
reality it is likely that various mixed, diversified, and idiosyncratic pat-
terns of cluster evolution will be observed, even within the same region
(see also Menghinello et al. 2010). However, the development over time
of industrial clusters and regional systems is crucially related to issues of
knowledge, technology and innovation. The various possible evolutionary
trajectories of these spatial transitions are depicted in Table 5.3.
A few brief well-known examples can be used here to illustrate the pos-
sible directions of spatial evolution (Box 5.1).
Once we examine the knowledge, technology and transactions-costs
characteristics of each of the spatial typologies of our taxonomy, four
broad insights emerge from the observation of these various selected
examples:
First, some particular types of evolutionary or transition patterns
are much more common than others, some of which are very rare
indeed. It seems thus possible to argue that the probability of some
evolutionary patterns is higher relative to others, though this may
vary over historical periods.
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Second, what also becomes apparent is that such evolutionary pat-
terns are not specific to, or characteristic of, particular industrial
sectors. Observing Tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 together demonstrates
that industries such as the semiconductor and electronics industry
exhibit multiple possible cluster types, and multiple possible evolu-
tionary trajectories. At the same time, depending on their industrial
structure, clusters may well be engaged in a prevalent but not exclu-
sive trajectory at any given point of time.
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Third, some simple stylized and popular analytical classifications
have little or no explanatory power in terms of the evolution of
cluster geographies or characteristics. For example, the traditional
technology content dichotomy often employed in the literature
which distinguishes between 'high-technology' sectors and 'low-
technology' sectors turns out to have almost no explanatory power
whatsoever. It is clear from Table 5.3 that the observed evolutionary
features of many well known high-skills and high-technology sectors
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