Rethinking local business clusters: the case of food clusters for promoting community development

Davis F. Taylor and Chad R. Miller

Community Development, 2010, vol. 41, issue 1, 108-120

Abstract: The business cluster concept is perhaps the most popular paradigm for studying and promoting local and regional economic development. While the business cluster literature acknowledges the existence of both locally-oriented and export-oriented clusters, research and practice places overwhelming emphasis on the latter. This paper examines two food-related business clusters, the Maine local produce cluster and the export-oriented Mississippi catfish cluster, to shed light on often-overlooked advantages of local business clusters. The Maine local produce cluster provides an “existence proof” that local clusters can be dynamic engines of local economic growth, and can have significant advantages over export-oriented clusters in terms of stability and resiliency. We call for further research to better understand the role of local-oriented business clusters in sustainable community development.

Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/15575330903548778 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:comdev:v:41:y:2010:i:1:p:108-120

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCOD20

DOI: 10.1080/15575330903548778

Access Statistics for this article

Community Development is currently edited by John Green, Rhonda Phillips and Anne Heinze Silvis

More articles in Community Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().