Rethinking Clusters Towards a New Research Agenda for Cluster Research

Research on the topic of clusters and industrial districts is very extensive. However, most of it has focused more on understanding the past than on trying to map out the future. The aim of this book is to fill this gap by identifying and discussing the main research topics that populate the current scientific debate and highlight the emergent lines of research that will constitute the future research agenda. It does so by drawing on the debate started with the "rethinking clusters" workshops, which in a short time have become a rich place for discussion among cluster scholars around the world. Rethinking Clusters: Towards a New Research Agenda for Cluster Research collects contributions from authoritative colleagues, who cover a number of relevant and timely issues, such as the territorial roots of radical innovation processes, new ways of understanding and measuring the role of place in economic development, path renewal, internationalization and entrepreneurship. The final section is devoted to the critical analysis of policies that support smart specialization. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal European Planning Studies.

Preface Introduction: Rethinking clusters. Towards a new research agenda for cluster research Luciana Lazzeretti, Francesco Capone, Annalisa Caloffi and Silvia Rita Sedita 1. Radical or not? The role of clusters in the emergence of radical innovations Nils Grashof, Kolja Hesse and Dirk Fornahl 2. Radical vs incremental innovation in Marshallian Industrial Districts in the Valencian Region: what prevails? Jose-Luis Hervas-Oliver, Francisca Sempere-Ripoll, Sofia Estelles-Miguel and Ronald Rojas-Alvarado 3. Place-based innovation in industrial districts: the long-term evolution of the iMID effect in Spain (1991–2014) Rafael Boix-Domenech, Vittorio Galletto and Fabio Sforzi 4. Rereading industrial districts through the lens of entrepreneurship Roberto Grandinetti 5. Understanding processes of path renewal and creation in thick specialized regional innovation systems. Evidence from two textile districts in Italy and Sweden Cristina Chaminade, Marco Bellandi, Monica Plechero and Erica Santini 6. Local or global? Does internationalization drive innovation in clusters? Marco Bettiol, Maria Chiarvesio, Eleonora Di Maria and Debora Gottardello 7. Clusters and internationalization: the role of lead firms’ commitment and RIS proactivity in tackling the risk of internal fractures Mario Davide Parrilli 8. Growth in regions, knowledge bases and relatedness: some insights from the Italian case Niccolò Innocenti and Luciana Lazzeretti 9. Six critical questions about smart specialization Robert Hassink and Huiwen Gong 10. In response to ‘Six critical questions about smart specialization' Dominique Foray

Luciana Lazzeretti is Full Professor in Management in the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Florence, Italy. Francesco Capone is Assistant Professor of Management in the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Florence, Italy. Annalisa Caloffi is Associate Professor of Applied Economics in the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Florence, Italy. Silvia Rita Sedita is Associate Professor of Management in the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Padova, Italy.