National Industry Cluster Templates: A Framework for Applied Regional Cluster Analysis

A growing number of cities, states and regions in Europe, North America and elsewhere are designing development strategies around strategic clusters of industries. In many cases, a lack of data on local and interregional industrial linkages, shared business institutions, channels of technology and knowledge transfer, and other dimensions of the cluster concept means that relatively simple measures (location quotients, industry size) are often used to initially detect clusters in subnational regions. In this paper, we suggest a means of using available information on national interindustry linkages to identify potential clusters in subnational areas. Specifically, we derive a set of 23 US manufacturing clusters and employ them as templates in an illustrative analysis of the manufacturing sector in a single US state. The template clusters help detect gaps and specializations in extended product chains and therefore constitute a useful first step in more comprehensive examinations of local cluster patterns.