How emergence conditions of technological clusters affect their viability? Theoretical perspectives on cluster lifecycles

Abstract

The widely studied concept of clusters has been usually treated as pre-established and successful structures. We argue that clusters are not pre-established but emerge through a double competition process of technological and regional nature. Moreover, faced to a changing environment they are not always successful. Their long-term evolution depends on their viability capacities. We show that viability is dependent on the emergence conditions, because different forms of emergence create clusters with different structures.cluster life cycle, emergence, viability, networks