Epistemic Communities and Cluster Dynamics: on the Role of Knowledge in Industrial Districts

This paper questions the prevailing notions that firms within industrial clusters have privileged access to ‘tacit knowledge’ that is unavailable – or available only at high cost – to firms located elsewhere, and that such access provides competitive advantages that help to explain the growth and development of both firms and regions. It outlines a model of cluster dynamics emphasizing two complementary and mutually interdependent processes: the concentration of specialized and complementary epistemic communities, on the one hand, and a high level of innovation and entrepreneurship – both within existing firms and in the form of new business – on the other.