How the practice of clustering shapes cluster emergence

ABSTRACT

How successful clusters emerge remains unclear. The paper investigates how the exercise of system-level agency contributes to cluster emergence. It applies a practice perspective and finds that system-level agency is enabled by the ‘practice of clustering’: a recurring set of coordinated and future-oriented activities through which regional actors collectively attempt to restructure the regional context to support cluster emergence better. The findings suggest that the specific practice of clustering that takes root in a given region helps explain why some nascent agglomerations develop into a functioning and viable cluster, while others do not.

KEYWORDS:

• industry clusters
• emergence
• path creation
• practice theory
• biotechnology

JEL:

• D2
• D7

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Anna M. Stephens http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1914-8377

Jörgen Sandberg http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8008-5312

Notes

1. For example, due to supportive local conditions such as a strong research base, an entrepreneurial regional culture, or policy support.

2. Following Menzel and Fornahl (2010) ‘interconnections’ entail traded and untraded interdependencies such as the market exchange of goods and services, labour mobility, monitoring and imitation of behaviour, social networks, and face-to-face interaction and cooperation.

3. ‘Non-firm’ actors could entail individuals from government, universities, the venture capital sector and intermediary organizations (e.g., industry bodies and associations).

4. For example, Menzel and Fornahl’s (2010) influential cluster life cycle model explicitly excludes consideration of how regional capabilities influence cluster dynamics as these entail ‘local characteristics that apply to all companies in the respective region’. Other models, such as Feldman et al. (2005), do mention the importance of regionally embedded resources and institutions, but predominately focus on the role of entrepreneurship in cluster emergence.

5. Human agency is rooted in the innate human capacity for desiring, for intentionality and for creative action. It is the power to do. As Sewell (1992, p. 20) observes: ‘To be an “agent” means to be capable of exerting some degree of control over the social relations in which one is enmeshed, which in turn implies the ability to transform those social relations to some degree.’

6. Brisbane is the capital city of the state of Queensland; Melbourne is the capital city of the state of Victoria.

7. See Appendix F in the supplemental data online for citations for archival documents and historical interviews.

8. Such events continued over the period 2005–09 but declined in frequency (e.g., cessation of BioLink breakfasts, but the institution of an annual chief executive officer (CEO) summit).