Entrepreneurship the role of clusters

ROCHA, H., STERNBERG, R

Congreso; Global entrepreneurship monitor conference; 2004

This paper is about the moderating impact of clusters on the relationship between entrepreneurship and regional development. Both clusters and entrepreneurship face high visibility among academics and policymakers given that similar historical conditions explain their resurgence and similar impacts on employment justify their economic importance. However, research on the moderating impact of clusters on the relationship between entrepreneurship and regional development is both theoretically and empirically missing. On the one hand, the entrepreneurship literature has focussed on the impact of entrepreneurship on both regional and national economic growth, without considering the moderating impact of clusters on these relationships. Some empirical studies have included concentration indexes as proxies for clusters as an additional independent variable in the model, but this strategy does not consider that clusters and industrial agglomeration are different phenomena. On the other hand, the cluster literature lacks an agreement on the conceptual and operational definition of clusters. Empirical studies on the relationship between clusters, entrepreneurship, and development have focussed on different phenomena such as industrial agglomerations and industrial districts, using as unit of analysis established small and medium-sized companies –i.e. focus on size- rather than on entrepreneurship –i.e. focus on new firms. The paper contributes to this research agenda advancing a theoretical model and an empirical research to explain the moderating impact of clusters on the relationship between entrepreneurship and regional development. Defining entrepreneurship as the creation of new organisations and cluster as a geographically proximate group of interconnected firms and associated institutions in related industries, the paper aims at answering three research questions: First, does the level of entrepreneurship within clusters contribute more to regional development than that not within clusters? Second, if clusters have a moderating impact on the relationship between entrepreneurship and regional development, what explain this impact? Third, what are the implications of the previous results for academics and policy makers?