The Co-Evolution of Entrepreneurship and Clusters

Christian Garavaglia () and Stefano Breschi ()
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Christian Garavaglia: University of Milan-Bicocca
Stefano Breschi: Bocconi University

A chapter in Growth and Innovation of Competitive Regions, 2009, pp 95-116 from Springer

Abstract: Clustering of firms and spatial concentration of economic activities have received increasing attention over the last two decades from regional, international and industrial economists. Agglomeration economies, network effects and knowledge spillovers were believed to influence the growth of a territory and were perceived as key engines of cluster development in the economic literature. Furthermore, entrepreneurship has been increasingly considered as a crucial factor in determining the economic growth of a territory (Audretsch 2002; Acs and Audrestch 2003; Audretsch and Keilbach 2004). The generation, evolution and persistence of clusters seem to be strictly related to the entrepreneurial activities taking place in a given area. In this paper we investigate the co-evolution of entrepreneurship and emergence of clusters, we highlight the contributions of different theoretical perspectives in explaining the processes behind entrepreneurial activity and its influence on the process of cluster formation. On the one hand, entrepreneurial activity in a geographical area is perceived to be the means by which firms take advantage of the positive external spillovers generated in the area. On the other, some contributions recognise entrepreneurship to be strictly related and influenced by the social ties available in a spatially bounded region.

Keywords: Cluster Formation; Entrepreneurial Activity; Knowledge Spillover; Industrial District; Agglomeration Economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-70924-4_5

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