As promised to research colleagues at the Regional Studies Association event in Southampton yesterday (25th Sept) here’s a copy of the presentation I gave.
As promised to research colleagues at the Regional Studies Association event in Southampton yesterday (25th Sept) here’s a copy of the presentation I gave.
From what I remember from my Cranfield MBA Porter’s models rely heavily on Californication. My question about clusters always comes back to “do firms think of themselves as being in a cluster” if not then they are pretty weak concepts. I like the description of the path- finding that resulted in the “cluster” logic. In other words if we tell firms enough times that they are in a cluster, they will feel that they are and start doing business together. The biggest weakness in the cluster strategy is that it was written way before the internet and assumes a geographical and chronological commonality of place and timezone. Recent events in the finance industry (to name but one) show this to be nonsense.
Thanks for this John. Yes, the cluster has its own internal logic and it kind of works in the way you describe. It also excludes those that don’t buy into the concept and can miss the bigger picture as it concerns itself with the machinations of how funding does or doesn’t work. Yet, at a key level (increasing the investment for the sector designated a cluster) it has succeeded.
Doom and Gloom for the “digital media” sector ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/01/slybailey.trinitymirror