The Present State of Research into Industrial Clusters and Districts. Content Analysis of Material Published in 1997–2006

Abstract

The aim of this work is to help gain a better understanding of the research conducted on territorial agglomerations of firms at a multidisciplinary level. To this end, an analysis was performed of the contents of the most significant scientific literature on economics, management, planning and development, urban studies and geography published over the period 1997–2006. From the results, a database of 142 papers from 43 journals was then elaborated. An analysis of these works reveals the level of development of the main lines of research in this field and, consequently, makes it possible to detect the topics that require greater attention and that can be the object of future research for researchers and academics. The main conclusions include the growing number of studies conducted on the subject in recent years, as well as a greater predominance of empirical research over conceptual work, and the existence of a significant change in the topics or lines of research throughout the period under study.

Acknowledgements

This research was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, National R&D & Innovation Plan 2007–2010, under the project entitled “El Distrito Industrial: el impacto del Capital Social sobre la Gestión de la Cadena de Suministro” (The Industrial District: the impact of Social Capital on the management of the Supply Chain) (SEJ2007-62876/ECON).

Notes

Analyses of brief notes, editorials, professional commentaries and book reviews, which are often seen in journals, have not been included in the study.

The authors are aware that relationships may exist between the different lines proposed here and so the articles can be classified according to more than one line of research. The task of analysing the lines in each article with the greatest possible precision was carried out by having different judges and assigning them to a single main line.

In view of the intermingled relationships between some of the proposed lines, the gaps identified in some lines could be applied to others.