The ‘cluster theory’ has become one of the main concepts promoting regional competitiveness, innovation, and growth. As most studies focus on measures of concentration of one industrial branch in order to identify regional clusters, the appropriate analysis of specific vertical relations...

This article analyses how regional employment growth in Germany is affected by related variety, unrelated variety and the functions a region performs in the production process. Following the related variety literature, we argue that regions benefit from the existence of related activities that...

Regional economic policy faces the challenge of two competing policy goals - reducing regional economic disparities vs. promoting economic growth. The allocation of public funds has to weigh these goals particularly under the restriction of scarce financial re- sources. If, however, some region...

Regional politicians regard the cluster concept as a key factor for promoting regional economic performance. They refer to a comprehensive set of theoretical and empirical literature which provides the clusters’ positive impact on regional development. Recent studies dealing with that...

This paper contributes to the empirical literature on systematic methodologies for the identification of industrial clusters. It combines a measure of spatial concentration, qualitative input–output analysis, and a knowledge interaction matrix to identify the production and knowledge...

This paper explores the impact of industrial clusters on regional growth at the German labour market region level using a regional convergence model. Based on the results of an exploratory study of the geography of German industrial clusters, we are able to differentiate the impact of industrial...

This paper explores the impact of industrial clusters on regional growth at level of German labour market regions within a regional convergence model. It focuses on vertically connected industrial sectors, which can emerge parallel to horizontal interconnections. Based on works of Schnabl (2000)...

Since the half of the 1990s, a heterogeneous development of East Germany NUTS 3 regions has taken place. Some of these regions could increase their competitiveness and regional employment. Otherwise, some regions do exist with less positive economic developments. This article tries to contribute...

Das Konzept industrieller Cluster verzeichnet stetige Attraktivitätsgewinne bei Akteuren regionaler Wirtschaftsförderung. Folgt man der Überlegung, dass das Clusterkonzept einen Ansatzpunkt zur Förderung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Regionen bildet, so ist es in einem ersten Schritt...