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This collection on 'Artificial intelligence, big data, algorithms and Industry 4.0 in firms and clusters' is introduced exploring the themes discussed by the nine papers and grouped into three categories to uncover new dynamics and identify future research opportunities for clusters and organizations in these transformative times. The first group explores theoretical aspects of AI and its evolution in social sciences, focusing on industry 4.0, smart cities, big data, and other related topics. The second group examines the role of industrial robots in employment, productivity, and knowledge absorption in industrial districts. The third group discusses innovation in the context of local production systems, AI ecosystems, and the growth and potential of the Metaverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative clusters are increasingly being recognized as vital tools in the promotion of the competitiveness, innovation, urban development, and growth of cities in developed countries. This paper studies the geography of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) in Barcelona (Spain) for the years 2009 and 2017. We investigate the spatial distribution of firms using the Scan methodology, which identifies the localization of clusters and assigns them statistical significance. Our findings indicate that CCIs are not located haphazardly— they tend to cluster in and around Barcelona's prime districts. The evolution of the clusters over these nine years reveals distinct patterns of clustering among the twelve CCI sub-sectors. The mature clusters in Barcelona's core tend to have greater growth and enhanced transformation capabilities. Our results can guide CCI cluster policy, taking into account the specificity of each sub-sector. In addition, they can direct place-based development strategies, creative urban and rural planning, and restructuring in a polycentric context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cluster policies have been implemented for many years across Europe. Within an evolutionary perspective, industrial development policies need to be updated, and adapted to respond to new changing scenarios, challenges and demands of the social and economic community. It is the case of the challenges raised by climate change and the recent international summits and agreements (e.g. 2016 Paris Agreement or the recent COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh) or by exogenous shocks to supply and demand due to present international crises. This is the focus of this paper that analyses the evolution of cluster policies and identifies a specific gap that could and should be addressed soon. The policy literature thoroughly examines several areas that cluster policy should target to respond to the afore-mentioned challenges. However, one component is not adequately considered. This is the social capital linked to the important migration waves that have modified the social spectrum of European economies and have produced a strong impact on the way industry clusters function. Specific actions are required to address these important transformations and to restore the 'social embeddedness of economic action' and the social capital that ignites the competitive capacity of clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notwithstanding the wide research on clusters and industrial districts, most of the preceding contributions tried to analyse and investigate past research and rarely tried to critique or propose any future trajectories of this stream of research. The aim of this special issue is to identify and discuss the main themes of research that populate the current scientific debate and highlight the emergent lines that may well set the future research agenda. In order to provide a scenario for better understanding the content of this special issue, in this work, we encouraged a mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches. In particular, to identify the most important themes of current and future research, we present a bibliometric analysis of the papers that were presented at the international workshop 'Rethinking Clusters', which took place in Florence in 2018, with more than 100 participants. This exercise together with a wider literature review permits us to propose a new research agenda on cluster research according to eight main themes. These range from cluster life cycles, through creativity, innovation, knowledge networks, cluster policy issues, internationalization, sustainability, finally to cluster variety and relatedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How new industrial pathways of development evolve has captured much attention in evolutionary economic geography lately. The role of path advocates and their narratives is deemed integral to legitimizing new industrial and technological pathways in regions. This paper investigates how the increasingly popular concept of legitimacy can shed light on the emergence of the London and Singapore software clusters. It finds that multiple concurrent clusters were emerging in these cities, the legitimization of which shaped the present-day clusters. The paper provides a novel rethinking of the cluster emergence process using a legitimacy perspective that highlights the varied importance of normative, cognitive, and regulatory legitimacies and the scales they emerge at, and contributes to understandings of inter-path dynamics and the role of path advocates and their narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at assessing the role of related variety, that is, the relatedness of knowledge bases used by different sectors within a region, as a major driver of clusters' development. Some recent theoretical papers underline the role of clusters as 'knowledge platforms' organizing the recombination of technologies in overlapping industries, following the seminal definition of clusters by Porter as 'geographic concentrations of linked industries'. In order to investigate the role of related variety in cluster dynamics, we analyse the patterns of development of clusters specializing in photonics in Europe. Photonics constitutes a new and rapidly evolving set of technologies with a high expected degree of technological recombination. However, due to inadequate traditional sectoral classifications, we propose an original method to delineate the perimeter of photonics in patent databases. A two-step algorithm is then used to identify systematically photonic clusters in Western Europe at the local level. In the last part of the paper, a typology of technological trajectories of clusters over the last decades is developed and then correlated with a set of quantitative measures of technological relatedness. The results highly confirm the role of related variety as a major driver of success, particularly for the biggest European clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an original empirical analysis of the European regional production network, making use of the interregional world input-output database. Similar to the concept of key sectors, a network analysis of key regions and key region-sectors of the EU in the global value chains (GVC) is carried out, taking into account both direct and indirect linkages. Additionally, a clustering analysis is performed to indicate the existence of highly interconnected groups of regions and the polarized structure of the European value chain network. The analysis is extended to quantify implications of Brexit, showing the relative vulnerability of the most internationalized regions and the differentiated sectoral impact according to the geographical origin, as London would mostly affect (tourism and financial) services, whereas the rest of the UK regions would mainly affect manufacturing activities. The findings suggest the considerable heterogeneity of European value chains as a result of varying levels of urban hierarchy, trade specialization between and within countries as well as sectoral concentration of regional economies. The empirical findings can provide valuable policy insights for supporting coordinated economic strategies to enhance regional competitiveness, development and cohesion, and reduce trade imbalances and spatial inequalities in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clusters are places that facilitate knowledge sharing and dissemination among firms and institutions working in functionally-related fields. Structural changes that take place within clusters over time influence knowledge-related processes and require new approaches towards external knowledge sourcing. In this paper, we use a mixed-method approach to investigate different knowledge sources that firms use at different stages of a cluster life cycle. The empirical research comprises the investigation of two clusters that specialize in the same kind of economic activity, i.e. in the furniture industry, but are at different stages of their life cycle. These are, a mature cluster – the Livenza district in Italy and a growing one – the Kępno cluster in Poland. The analysis revealed that firms in a mature cluster use a greater variety of external knowledge sources and more knowledge-intensive sources than those in growing clusters do. This may be explained by more homogeneous and well-established knowledge pools at later stages of a cluster life cycle and/or by higher competition between firms offering similar products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cluster Associations (CAs) attempt to promote competitiveness through inter-firm collaboration, and are generally seen as drivers of social capital formation in the region. We map in this paper, by using Social Network Analysis, the cluster policy network of the Basque Country in 2013, which may be considered a proxy of the structural dimension of social capital in the region. Besides, we identify the central agents of this network and attempt to explain the reasons for their centrality and the roles that they play. We take the affiliation of an organization to at least two CAs as a first indicator of the overall pattern of connections within the cluster policy network. Later on, we filter it with data about the Boards of Directors of CAs, and the Basque Contact Points created to concur with the Seventh Framework Programme for Research launched by the European Commission. We contend that those organizations that are present in these three networks form a ‘small world’ that numerous studies have shown to be favourable for creative output, where they might play a dual role of gatekeepers of knowledge and innovation within and between clusters and drivers of bridging social capital formation in the Basque Country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies in evolutionary economic geography have found that knowledge spillovers, crucial for the development and maintenance of clusters, tend to flow between sectors that are related via similar inputs and/or outputs. Thus, there is a growing body of literature stating that industrial variety within clusters is beneficial for economic growth, whereby local industrial diversity sparks creativity, new ideas and innovations. Within this context, the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster (IMERC) is a diverse, multisectoral cluster. Using an Input–Output table this paper examines the intra-cluster linkages, as well as the relatedness in terms of inputs and outputs across the four IMERC pillars: Marine Energy; Shipping, Logistics and Transport; Maritime Safety and Security; and Yachting Products and Services. This analysis found that although IMERC has weak intra-cluster linkages, the four pillars share a high number of related inputs and outputs. Based on this analysis, IMERC has the potential to develop into a strong maritime cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation in clusters is initially rooted in proximity among specialized actors, but over time it results from an interplay between the local and global levels. The internationalization of production and the relocation of cluster manufacturing activities abroad open a debate on the impact of such dynamics upon innovation, between knowledge acquisition opportunities and the weakening of local innovation activities. This paper contributes to the debate by empirically testing whether internationalization has an impact on cluster firms' innovation outputs. Based on a survey conducted among 259 Italian cluster firms, the results show that upstream and downstream internationalization per se does not impact innovation, measuring product, process, organizational, and marketing innovation outputs. On the contrary, collaboration with external actors, such as designers, research centres or universities, has a positive effect on firms' innovation outputs. This is consistent with the cluster model and with previous studies focusing on innovation in the cluster context. Our analyses show that it is not internationalization that matters when it comes to innovation for cluster firms. Innovation performances are influenced by the relational capabilities of cluster firms to connect and manage collaboration even outside the cluster scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitization and its impact on regions and clusters remains overlooked in the literature, and constitute this present paper's goal. How does an industrial district transit collectively to the adoption of new radical changes brought about by Industry 4.0? This study explores the role of collective actors and innovation platforms during the early stages of a pilot policy to stimulate a collective transition of an entire MID (Marshallian Industrial District) into Industry 4.0. We posit that institutional isomorphism and the existent social capital in MIDs is a double-sword phenomenon that can also positively constitute an enabler for fostering change on a collective-basis. Technology transitions, such as Industry 4.0, can be supported and led by collective actors that are central in facilitating the adoption of Industry 4.0 in MIDs, enticing innovative firms to engage in that transition, establishing, legitimizing, and embedding a new set of processes, practices and inter-firm arrangements for digitizing and then promoting imitation: the positive leverage of isomorphism. Thus, MID transition is facilitated through capitalizing on the MID logic of cooperation-competition and isomorphism, by developing and promoting a collective understanding of the new paradigm, building a supportive infrastructure, educating in the new technology and avoiding cognitive inertia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary so-called ‘competition state era’, many rural and peripheral regions are in decline. Tourism is increasingly viewed as being able to alleviate and rejuvenate regions that are facing economic difficulties. The European Union has launched several programmes with the goal of stimulating growth and employment in peripheral areas. These programmes are often used to support tourism development projects. In this paper, a longitudinal analysis of spatial changes in Swedish tourism is conducted. The analysis is based on statistics regarding overnight stays in Swedish commercial accommodation facilities. The aim is to investigate if tourism and tourism policy contribute to the reduction in disparities between regions. Although there are exceptions, the main findings indicate that the potential for creating sustainable rural tourism growth through tourism policy seems to be much less than the popular discourse suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in urban areas are increasingly relevant, with a consistent impact on various territories. This research explores the re-territorialization processes, contextualized by the post-Fordism era, in urban areas. The objective of this work is to verify a hypothesis assumed at the base of the research relating to the presence of a uniformity of orientation regarding the settlement determinants of companies that are co-located in specific areas of the cities. This hypothesis is tested in relation to various industrial sectors. The availability of these survey elements constitutes a useful driver of awareness to be then translated into specific actions in urban planning in terms of policies, services and infrastructures to be dedicated to these urban spaces characterized by clusters of firms. From a methodological point of view, the followed approach is based on two aspects relating both to a cartographic comparison and both to a statistical comparison between the answers provided by the service companies of different sectors of some European cities selected for the sample survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on clusters is based on the seminal writings of Marshall, followed by Becattini's rediscovery of the concept of the 'industrial district' and the analyses promoted during the 1980s by Porter, who highlighted the importance of geographically interconnected firms and institutions specialized in a particular field and clustered in a limited space. Although the cluster model is often described as being static and locally self-contained, various empirical studies and our analysis have pointed out the increasing involvement of cluster firms in the process of change, renewal and internationalization. In this context, several modalities may be studied within the cluster life cycle -- which proceeds from the process of multinational enterprise (MNE) entry to the development of global value chains and to the emergence of homegrown MNEs -- in addition to possible alliances between cluster firms and external MNEs. The recent entry of MNEs in clusters, as well as the phenomenon of homegrown MNEs, do not necessarily require a questioning of the cluster model per se, but they do contribute to showing how complex and interwoven the evolution of local economies is. A rich number of empirical cases will be presented in this review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to examine in depth the brokerage roles that supporting institutions play in conducting local business and applying technical knowledge inside clusters. We identify three main roles: a coordination role, characterized by the efforts that organizations play in internally coordinating themselves and establishing a shared institutional framework; an interconnector role, where organizations foster communication along the value chain of the industry; and a gatekeeper role that allows organizations to connect cluster members with external networks. Results obtained in the Toy Valley cluster provide evidence that each kind of supporting organization tends to specialize in specific roles, since universities are best for a coordination role with regard to technical knowledge while private organizations are key for vertical communication and coordination. Similar results were obtained when analysing the extra-cluster contacts that these organizations develop as gatekeepers, as they tend to establish specific communication conduits with similar alters in external networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes a valuation perspective to study how and where products and innovations are gaining ‘economic significance’ in the contemporary economy. Building on a recent research stream in economic geography and urban and regional studies, it highlights that the economic value of many products is not formed within production systems alone, but relies on co-constructed connections between production and consumption systems, playing out across multiple geographies. It distinguishes between three types of economic valuation pathways – namely technical, experiential and identity-based – which although analytically distinct may actually build and reinforce one another. This approach is empirically illustrated with the case of the surf-related economy in the city of San Sebastian (Basque Country, Spain), which is used to make a broader point about the growing relevance of a valuation approach to understand competitive advantage and economic renewal in localized production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) literature has attracted much attention, especially in policy circles. However, the concept suffers from a number of shortcomings: (1) it lacks a clear analytical framework that makes explicit what is cause and what is effect in an EE; (2) while being a systemic concept, the EE has not yet fully exploited insights from network theory, and it is not always clear in what way the proposed elements are connected in an EE; (3) it remains a challenge what institutions (and at what spatial scale) impact on the structure and performance of EE; (4) studies have often focused on the EE in single regions or clusters, but lack a comparative and multi-scalar perspective and (5) the EE literature tends to provide a static framework taking a snapshot of EE without considering systematically their evolution over time. For each of these shortcomings, we make a number of suggestions to take up in future research on EE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covering the knowledge economy scenario, this article attempts to illustrate the analysis of the employment of knowledge transmission channels in the EuroClusTex, cross-border textile and clothing cluster between northern Portugal and Galicia. Therefore, an exploratory research was conducted. Primary data were obtained through participation in events, from interviews with key informants (entrepreneurs, leaders of cluster support institutions and government representatives). The secondary data were provided by the cluster support institutions, international organizations and the literature review. The results showed that EuroClusTex contributes to the competitiveness of regions, boosting trade relations between Galicia and northern Portugal. The most effective knowledge transmission channels in EuroClusTex were identified as: imitation, relationship with suppliers, public policy and human resources training. Experiences similar to EuroClusTex can be considered and served as examples for the development of clustering policies in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]