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| WESTERN CLUSTER STUDIES AND CLUSTER POLITICS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS TO CHINA |
| WANG Tao1, Ingo Liefner2, ZENG Gang3 |
1. Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China;
2. Universityt Hannover, Hannover D-30167, Germany;
3. East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China |
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Abstract Since the late 1990s, there is increasing interests focused on cluster and cluster politics. As those current theories were developed in western countries,one question remains:can China use these western experiences and theories which grew from different soil? The goal of this article is to investigate the theory basis of the western cluster studies and cluster politics, hoping that some tips could be brought out to the cluster research in China. First, the origin, development and emphasis of the cluster concepts from Porter school and OECD school are reviewed. Then the conditions for the origin and the development of the cluster, the life cycle, mechanism, dimension and type of the cluster as individual investigating element in the studies of cluster are analysed. The concepts of the cluster politics in industrial countries and the criticism of these cluster politics are also discussed in this article. In contrast to the numerous literatures about technological in novation regions in industrial countries, it seems that the theoretical and empirical investigations about the in novation systems and clusters in developing countries are rare. So it is highly required that modified theories about cluster and cluster politics from the western countries, which fit developing countries well, should be developed soon. For the conclusion of this article, the authors would like to point out that the possible approach of the development of new theories, by the example of the cluster theories and by the example of China, is to analyze problems, to analyze theories and adjust theories.
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Received: 08 October 2005
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2006, Vol. 21 
