What Was New About the Cluster Theory?

Yasuyuki Motoyama
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Yasuyuki Motoyama: University of California, Irvine

Economic Development Quarterly, 2008, vol. 22, issue 4, 353-363

Abstract: Michael Porter's cluster theory became popular at both the academic and policy levels as well as received a series of critiques. This article provides a synthetic view of those critiques. In addition, it reveals two new fundamental limitations of the theory. First, the descriptive and static nature of the theory limits the ability to replicate a successful cluster in practice. In other words, the current theory is more focused on describing how a cluster is organized today rather than how a cluster emerged. Incorporating historical process can strengthen the practical application. Second, the interconnectedness of a cluster is hard to measure empirically, and moreover, the theory does not explain how exactly the public sector can strengthen this aspect. A dialogue with networking theories can potentially improve the application.

Keywords: economic development; cluster; competitiveness; regional economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:22:y:2008:i:4:p:353-363

DOI: 10.1177/0891242408324373

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