The Luster of Clusters

A random thought has been rolling around in my mind lately: The notion of business clusters and how some clusters seem to be in luckier regions than others. By clusters, I am talking about geographic concentrations of businesses, suppliers and associated institutions (all interconnected) in a particular field-Think Silicon Valley for tech, Rust Belt for manufacturing, and Texas for oil.

When the dot.com bubble hit Silicon Valley in Northern California, for example, the region underwent a huge transformation, and cities all over the US sought to become the next Silicon Valley by building network-enabled office space to attract internet entrepreneurs. Some even used tax money to fund technology conference centers, figuring that the cost in taxpayer funds was well worth the hoped-for return in jobs.