Extract

Somewhat paradoxically, the era of global competition has made local knowledge and relationships more important than ever (Audretsch 1998; Dunning 1998; Porter 2000). Thus, it is surprising that the impact of industrial clusters (‘geographical concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field’ (Porter 1998b: 78)) on firm internationalization has received little attention in the academic literature (Andersen 2002; Prashantham 2008; Sopas 2001), especially in the emerging and developing countries (EDCs), even though successful clusters are often held to be a vital response to global competition (Schmitz 2000). However, our knowledge of the impact of local clusters on the internationalization of firms from EDCs is very scant. Considering this gap in knowledge, the main research question in this study is: What impacts do EDC industrial clusters have on firm internationalization?