Evolving Insight of Localization Theories into Cluster Existence

Abstract

To examine the current state of localization economics in the second chapter, we must revisit the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The intention of the team of authors is to follow the development of traditional industries in the theoretical concept of industry cluster. The starting point was the ideas of the economist Alfred Marshall (1842–1924) who dealt with the spatial concentration of companies. Marshall examined the factors influencing the region’s specialization in a particular industry. Marshall claimed that when an industry had ‘chosen’ its location, it was likely to stay there for a long time. The benefits are so great that workers and specialists with appropriate qualifications come together in geographic proximity. The local significance of the industry and the performance of companies cannot be assessed in the short term, but its significance must be monitored across generations. The chapter presents an analysis of the following theories: Initial localization theories, Neoclassical localization theories, New economic geography (new localization theories), Structuralist concepts, Marxist critical-realistic approaches, Institutional localization concepts, the theory of production districts, the theory of learning regions, the concept of regional innovation systems, Porter’s cluster theory, the concept of global approaches, and the concept of related diversity.