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Publications
  • November – December 1998
  • Article
  • Harvard Business Review

Clusters and the New Economics of Competition

By: Michael E. Porter
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

This article explains how clusters foster high levels of productivity and innovation and lays out the implications for competitive strategy and economic policy. Economic geography in an era of global competition poses a paradox. In theory, location should no longer be a source of competitive advantage. Open global markets, rapid transportation, and high-speed communications should allow any company to source any thing from any place at any time. But in practice, location remains central to competition. Today's economic map of the world is characterized by what Porter calls clusters: critical masses in one place of linked industries and institutions—from suppliers to universities to government agencies—that enjoy unusual competitive success in a particular field. The most famous examples are found in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but clusters dot the world's landscape. Porter explains how clusters affect competition in three broad ways: first, by increasing the productivity of companies based in the area; second, by driving the direction and pace of innovation; and third, by stimulating the formation of new businesses within the cluster. Geographic, cultural, and institutional proximity provides companies with special access, closer relationships, better information, powerful incentives, and other advantages that are difficult to tap from a distance. The more complex, knowledge-based, and dynamic the world economy becomes, the more this is true. Competitive advantage lies increasingly in local things—knowledge, relationships, and motivation—that distant rivals cannot replicate.

Keywords

Economics; United States

Citation

Porter, Michael E. "Clusters and the New Economics of Competition." Harvard Business Review 76, no. 6 (November–December 1998): 77–90.
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About The Author

Michael E. Porter

Strategy
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  • A Recovery Squandered: The State of U.S. Competitiveness 2019 By: Michael E. Porter, Jan Rivkin, Mihir Desai, Katherine M. Gehl, William R. Kerr and Manjari Raman
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