Introduction to beyond innovation hotspots

After three decades of academic discourse on, as well as practical and political experience with, clusters and competitiveness, crises and rising challenges pose new questions to scholars and policy-makers alike. Are clusters, cluster policies and cluster initiatives still relevant to maintain and build sustainable foundations of prosperity in the light of climate change, decarbonisation and new disruptive technologies? How do clusters respond to these challenges to new challenges, how do they need to transform in the future? This chapter introduces these challenges and summarises the contributions to this book, which focus on the different experiences of ‘real’ regions that differ from the widely studied high-tech regions. The editors discuss the key findings, derive policy recommendations and highlight the need for further research.