Clusters and Industrial Districts: Where is the Literature Going? Identifying Emerging Sub-Fields of Research

Abstract

The industrial district and cluster literature has generated an extraordinary quantity of articles, debates and topics for discussion, and encompasses one of the most vibrant lines of research in the field of economics, geography, management and related disciplines. The literature, however, is fairly fragmented. In this paper, “bibliometric” methods are used to analyse the cluster literature published between 1957 and 2014 in order to explore “prospective” research priorities through the method of “bibliographic coupling”. Beyond focusing on foundational works in the past, this approach shifts the focus away from the practice of analysing co-citations and seminal contributions to one of looking at current and emerging trends in the literature. Using the ISI Web of Knowledge (Web of Science) as a database, an examination of two samples of 3955 and 2419 articles is made. Results reveal the existence of sub-fields of inquiry that follow their own particular research agendas, which remain distinct yet interconnected to one another.

Keywords:

• cluster
• industrial district
• bibliometric analysis
• Web of Science
• bibliographic coupling

JEL Classification:

• R1

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We recognize differences among them (see e.g. Asheim et al., 2011 for differences between “clusters” and “industrial districts”), but both concepts are used interchangeably in this paper and represent our focus.

2. For instance, we identified hundreds of documents which said they were applying “cluster (statistical) techniques”, while others made reference to clusters of star constellations.

3. We search for 1900–2014. The first paper meeting our requirements was in 1957. Interestingly, the search identified articles during the 1950s and 1960s, such as Cribier (1966), Industrial Districts of East-End of London, Annales De Geographie, 75: 208–209.; Nazarov (1962), The Problem of Organizing a Food-Supply Base for the Yeniseysk Industrial District, Soviet Geography Review and Translation, 3: 45–55.; Wagner (1957), Planned Industrial Districts, Journal of Geography, 56: 129–132.; Weiss and Kaiser (1968), Quantitative Evaluation of Major Factors Influencing Urban Land Development in a Regional Cluster, Ekistics, 25: 338–342.

4. Following Glänzel and Czerwon (1995, 1996), common studies represent at least 1% of the initial population of documents. In our study, we used 3.38% (threshold of 16 shared references) in our sample, represented in the network of bibliographic coupling in Figure 3.

5. In line with this idea of clusters opening to new knowledge, Markusen (1985) states that inward-looking orientations impact negatively on cluster performance, whereas openness of networks to new skills, knowledge and firms have positive influences (Bresnahan et al., 2001; Eisingerich et al., 2010; Porter, 1998; Romanelli & Khessina, 2005). Besides, from the management perspective Arikan's (2009) framework, based on Rosenkopf and Almeida (2003), also posits that the more cluster firms engage in knowledge exchanges with outside entities, the stronger the creation of new knowledge in clusters becomes.

6. According to ISI Web of Knowledge, Morgan, Gertler, Grabher, Cooke, Maskell, Malmberg, Florida, Asheim or Pinch, among others are seminal authors in that conversation.

7. See Lazzeretti et al. (2014) for the limitations of the ISI Web of Knowledge and the ISI Web of Knowledge itself.

8. In this group, the journals are dedicated to the development of theory and methods in spatial economics and the economics of agglomeration, such as Journal of Regional Science, Spatial Economic Analysis, Papers in Regional Science or Regional Science and Urban Economics, with a minor presence of others such as Regional Studies, or Journal of Economic Geography. Leading authors in the conversation are, among others, Puga or Fujita. Most cited and shared references in this sub-group are: Krugman P, 1991b, V99, P483, J Polit Econ; Krugman P., 1991a, Geography Trade; Glaeser EL, 1992, V100, P1126, J Polit Econ; Fujita, 1999, Spatial Ec Cities Re; Jacobs J., 1969, Ec Cities; Marshall A, 1920, Principles Ec; and Jaffe AB, 1993, V108, P577, Q J Econ.

9. There is a small group of 11 papers addressing regional innovation systems, led by Todtling, Belussi or Doloreux, citing intensively at seminal authors like Cooke, Philip or Bjorn Asheim. Nevertheless, not all of them fit in our scope of clusters and industrial districts.

10. For the sake of brevity, more results available upon request.

11. Management in a broad sense: referring to technology strategy, management of technology (MOT), innovation, organizational learning, etc.

12. Cohen and Levintahl (1990) and Allen (1977), respectively are seminal works in management whose concepts are now vastly used in economic geography mostly popularized by Bell, Giuliani or Asheim, among others.

13. By meso-unit we refer to clusters, including regional concentrations of related industries, organizations (research centers, trade associations, local universities and so forth) and firms under the same or similar institutions, social norms, etc. By micro-unit, we refer to the analysis of the cluster firms.

Additional information

Funding

We thank financial support from Ministerio de Economia, Spanish Government, through ECO2010:17318 Innoclusters.