Introduction: A Background to Clusters

This chapter introduces the concept of geographic clusters by first discussing the origins of cluster thinking and milestone contributions to the field. Selected examples of clusters in developed and developing countries are then provided in the second section. This is followed by a discussion on the definition of clusters, concentrating on their distinguishing characteristics compared with industrial districts and networks. The final section is devoted to the central issue of this study, that is, the link between clustering and competitiveness.