Adapting Regional Clusters to Globalization and Crisis: The Role of Internal and External Linkages in Cluster Evolution, with a Focus on Tourism Clusters

Abstract

In response to crisis threats and the challenges of globalization and informatization, processes oriented toward a system of internal or external linkages are taking place in regional industry clusters (clusters). Strategies directed at networks of connections within the region do not protect against the threat of isolation, which implies negative externalities of the network and the danger of crisis. Strategies based on the construction of foreign ties, associated with the relocation of selected elements of the value chain (so-called selective relocation), allow avoiding isolation and reaping positive network effects.