No 2015/46 Understanding Cluster Evolution

Abstract

The past few years have seen an increasing popularity of cluster life cycle approaches. These models, however, suggest a rather deterministic view, are indifferent with respect to context and suffer from biological connotations. This chapter intends to go beyond the cluster life cycle models. We review the literature on industrial districts, innovative milieu and regional innovation systems and investigate how these alternative approaches contribute to the development of a more context-sensitive approach to cluster change. We argue that future research may benefit from developing theoretically relevant categorizations of different cluster types and from carrying out comparative empirical studies.