National Systems of Innovations, Industrial Clusters and Constituency-Building in Scotland’s Electronic Industry

Molina and Kinder. (2001) International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management Vol. 1 (N. 2). 241-275.

This paper is concerned with the development of sustainable industrial capabilities, understood as a country’s ability to shape significantly the content, direction and dynamism of the long-term evolution of target industrial clusters. It purports, on the one hand, to advance the existing theoretical apparatus to deal with the understanding and practice of processes of industrial clusters and innovative capabilities; and, on the other, to implement this theoretical apparatus to the practical experience of electronics cluster fostering in Scotland. The theoretical work focuses on the integration of fundamental insights of industrial clusters and national systems of innovation (NSI) approaches with insights coming from the socio-technical constituencies (STC) approach. The empirical work concentrates on the analysis of the depth and sustainability of Scotland’s electronics clustering experience, with particular emphasis on the governance dominating its evolution.