Industrial clusters in local and regional economies: a post Porter approach to the identification & evaluation of clusters in North Dublin

In a departure from the predominantly Porter (1990, 1998) influenced cluster studies that weie pei formed on Irish manufacturing throughout the 1990s i.e. studies which examined primarily market based relationships in the national context, this dissertation has focused on local and regional industry concentrations and the nature of inter-firm relationships within those concentrations Underpinning this approach is a bioad theoretical framework that combines three streams of related literature industrial districts, Porter's clusters and regional systems of innovation This alternative approach is applied to the local economy of North Dublin wheie analysis of region-specific employment data using location quotients indicates a number of spatially concentrated industrial sectors We then pose the question Do spatial concentrations o f industry in North Dublin constitute clusters? Using a case study approach we answer this question in relation to three traditional sectois Fish piocessing and preservation, Paper print and publishing, and Bakery food products We find that, for the most part, spatial concentrations do not constitute clusters, at least not in the Portenan sense of the term Despite this, elements or characteristics of clustcis are identified in two of the three sectors Using a simple analytical framework based on contextual and transactional environments we compare and contrast the inter-firm dynamics of each of these tiaditional sectors We identify a number of factors of each of the sector’s tiansactional and contextual environments that have shaped the nature of interaction between and among firms and attribute the disparate trajectories in firms’ interactive piocesses to these sectoral difference