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Industrial and
Regional Clusters: Concepts and Comparative Applications
Edward
M. Bergman and Edward J.
Feser
GLOSSARY
TERMS
| Concept |
Definition |
| Sector (or
Industry) |
A
sector or industry is a group of enterprises that manufacture similar products,
as typically defined, for example, under the U.S. Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC) system. |
| Industry
cluster |
A
group of business enterprises and non-business organizations for whom
membership within the group is an important element of each member firm’s
individual competitiveness. Binding the cluster together are "buyer-supplier
relationships, or common technologies, common buyers or distribution channels,
or common labor pools (Enright 1997, p. 191)." See Porter (1990). |
| Regional industry
cluster |
A
cluster whose elements share a common regional location, where region is
defined as a metropolitan area, labor market, or other functional economic
unit. |
| Potential industry
cluster |
A group of related and supporting
businesses and institutions, that, given additional core elements, interfirm
relationships, or critical linking sectors, would obtain some pre-defined
critical mass. |
| Value-chain industry
cluster |
A
value chain cluster is an industry cluster identified as an extended
input-output or buyer-supplier chain. It includes final market producers, and
first, second and third tier suppliers that directly and indirectly engage in
trade. It is comprised of multiple sectors or industries. (See Roelandt and den
Hertog 1999). A "Value-chain cluster" is consistent with an "industry cluster"
as defined by Czamanski and de Ablas (1979, p. 62): "a subset of industries of
the economy connected by flows of goods and services stronger than those
linking them to the other sectors of the national economy." May also be defined
as potential, where enterprises may or may not presently trade with each
other, although such trade could possibly occur in the future. |
| Business
network |
"A
group of firms with restricted membership and specific, and often contractual,
business objectives likely to result in mutual financial gains. The members of
a network choose each other, for a variety of reasons; they agree explicitly to
cooperate in some way and to depend on each other to some extent. Networks
develop more readily within clusters, particularly where multiple business
transactions have created familiarity and built trust (Rosenfeld 1995a, p.
13)." Ties between firms in networks are typically more formal than in
clusters. |
| Italianate industrial
district |
A
highly geographically concentrated group of companies that "either work
directly or indirectly for the same end market, share values and knowledge so
important that they define a cultural environment, and are specifically linked
to one another in a complex mix of competition and cooperation (Rosenfeld
1995b, p. 13). Key source of competitiveness are elements of trust, solidarity,
and cooperation between firms, a result of a close intertwining of economic,
social, and community relations. See also Harrison (1992). |
| Industry
complex |
"A
group of industries connected by important flows of goods and services, and
showing in addition a significant similarity in their location patterns
(Czamanski and de Ablas 1979, p. 62)." |
| Innovative
milieu |
Not a
group of business or a region, but a "complex which is capable of initiating a
synergetic process. . .an organization, a complex system made up of economic
and technological interdependencies. . .a coherent whole in which a territorial
production system, a technical culture, and protagonists are linked (Maillat
1991, p. 113)." See also Maillat (1988). |
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