Cluster Genesis Technology-Based Industrial Development

by Braunerhjelm, Pontus; Feldman, Maryann P.

• ISBN13: 9780199232208
• ISBN10: 0199232202
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Clusters - regional concentrations of related firms and organizations - are seen as being an important element of economic growth and innovation. But there is little understanding of how clusters come into existence, and little guidance provided on the role of policies that are conducive to the formation of clusters. Cluster Genesis focuses on these early origins of clusters. The case histories of well-known, established clusters, as well as more recently-developed clusters are discussed, including: · The Hollywood motion picture cluster, · Silicon Valley, · Boston and San Francisco biotech regions, · The Biotech industry in China, · Medicon Valley in Scandinavia, · The Irish ITC sector. Leading scholars contribute chapters examining cluster genesis, the divergent processes by which clusters arise, how multinationals contribute to cluster development, and how economic development policy may promote or hinder cluster genesis. Cluster Genesis uses a variety of methodological perspectives, examines a range of policy options, and draws on a number of rich case histories, and will be key reading for academics, researchers, and students of Economics, Innovation, Sociology, Geography, and Management Studies, as well as economic development officials and policy makers.

Author Biography

Pontus Braunerhjelm earned his Ph.D. at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, in 1994. His research centers around issues related to entrepreneurship, knowledge, localization and industrial dynamics and growth. His has published extensively in journals and also contributed to several books internationally published. In 2000 he participated in the CEPR Monitoring European Integration report (with co-authors R. Faini, V. Norman, F. Ruane and P. Seabright). Dr. Braunerhjelm is presently heading two larger research projects: One on endogenous growth and entrepreneurship and the other on microeconomic dynamics within Europe. He has been a regular participant in the 'wise men' group of economists that annually evaluates the Swedish economy and presents policy recommendations (SNS Economic Policy Group). Presently Pontus Brauerhjelm holds Leif Lundbad's chair in international business and entrepreneurship at The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
Maryann Feldman is the Jeffery S. Skoll Chair in Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Professor of Business Economics at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Prior to joining Rotman, Dr. Feldman held the position of Policy Director for Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and prior to that she was a research scientist at the Institute on Policy Studies at the University. Dr. Feldman is on the Advisory Panel for the U.S. National Science Foundation's Program on Societal Dimensions of Engineering, Science and Technology. Her research and teaching interests focus on the areas of innovation, the commercialization of academic research and the factors that promote technological change and economic growth. A large part of Dr. Feldman's work concerns the geography of innovation - investigating the reasons why innovation clusters spatially and the mechanisms that support and sustain industrial clusters.

Table of Contents

Maryann Feldman and Pontus Braunerhjelm: The Genesis of Industrial Clusters

Creation Myths Revisited

Allen J. Scott: The Origins and Growth of the Hollywood Motion-Picture Industry: The First Three Decades

Martin Kenney and Donald Patton: The Co-evolution of Technologies and Institutions: Silicon Valley as the Iconic High-Technology Cluster

Jason Owen-Smith and Walter W. Powell: Accounting for Emergence and Novelty in Boston and Bay Area Biotechnology

I. Considering the Developing Cluster Context

Elaine Romanelli and Maryann Feldman: Anatomy of Cluster Development: The Case of U.S. Human Biotherapeutics, 1976-2003

Martha Prevezer and Han Tang: Policy-Induced Clusters: The Genesis of Biotechnology Clustering on the East Coast of China

Pontus Braunerhjelm and Christian Helgesson: The Emergence of a European Biotechnology Cluster: The case of Medicon Valley

Frank Barry: The Emergence of Ireland's ICT Clusters: The Role of Foreign Direct Investment

Gil Avnimelech and Morris Teubal: The Emergence of Israel's Venture Capital Industry: How Policy Can Influence High-Tech Cluster Dynamics

I. Crafting Cluster and Economic Development Policy

Luigi Orsenigo: Clusters and Clustering: Stylised Facts, Issues, and Theories

Mario A. Maggioni: Mors tua, Vita mea? The Rise and Fall of Innovative Industrial Clusters

David A. Wolfe and Meric S. Gertler: Local Antecedents and Trigger Events: Policy Implications of Path Dependence for Cluster Formation

Bo Carlsson: The Role of Public Policy in Emerging Clusters

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.