"Industrial Clusters, the Unit of Analysis and Economic Behaviour: New Business History Perspectives"

Although much has been written about industrial clusters, there are still fruitful avenues for future research. Wilson et al (2022) highlighted this in their collection of British cluster case-studies, where challenges emerged from the analysis of these complex socio-economic entities. A question left unanswered by the editors was which unit of analysis is the most productive to study, because the view of a cluster is dependent on which lens we adopt. By breaking down the analysis of clusters into a series of layers – actors; firms; industries; districts; and activity beyond the cluster – provides different perspectives on the whole process of continuity and change over time. On the one hand, one can argue that the key unit of analysis is the individual entrepreneur (or small group of entrepreneurs) who were responsible for initiating economic activity. As Casson (1982) articulated in his entrepreneurial theory of the firm, firms are founded by entrepreneurs, and the success of the firm is associated with their personal qualities. This also illuminates the issues raised by Gourlay (2006), who focused attention on individual behaviour, and the ways entrepreneurs extracted essential skills and knowledge from an environment rich in economic potential. Evers (2008) also noted that facilitating the transfer of tacit knowledge is consequently one of the most difficult aspects of knowledge management, given that this type of knowledge is inherently personal, being very much a feature of an individual’s skillset. On the other hand, Smith et al. (2022) have illustrated a remarkable degree of differentiation across industrial districts, reemphasising the highly diverse nature of those entities and highlighting the composition small, medium and large firms. In drawing some conclusions about these alternative approaches, we will also allude to the relevance of the debate to broader studies of economic evolution, demonstrating a degree of commonality across these disciplines.