A Simulation on Industrial Clusters’ Evolution: Implications and Constraints

Abstract

In recent years, the industrial cluster Engineering has been considered as the most remarkably successful pattern of regional economy development. As a result, its evolution has given rise to intensive discussions among scholars. Though the present views on its evolution are still in vast disagreement, this paper tries to clarify the inner nature of industrial clusters by arguing that the industrial cluster is a kind of inherently complex phenomenon with multi-agents with certain intelligence interacting each other locally. This paper points out that it is these local adaptive interactions among firms that underlie industrial cluster's movement and evolution. This paper simulates and verifies the evolution process and concludes that geographical proximity is the prerequisite for industrial cluster's evolution. However, there are some inner constraints, which imply that some coordination mechanisms, such as social bonding, governmental intervention are in some cases the indispensable factors that are critical for the successful evolution of an industrial cluster.