Conclusion

Abstract

This book provided a critical useful framework to explain the formation of agglomeration and the endogenous innovation process and to construct models to upgrade industrial clusters to knowledge-based ones. The underlying theory of these processes is ‘the Flowchart Approach’, which we have been proposing in Kuchiki and Tsuji (2005, 2008), and Tsuji et al. (2007). The objective of this book is to formulate the transforming process from agglomeration to endogenous innovation by expanding the Flowchart Approach. As a conclusion, this process is divided into two sub-processes, namely, agglomeration and innovation, and we postulated these processes according to the Flowchart Approach. It is referred to as Step I of agglomeration and Step II of innovation. This process cannot be a single path common to all economies, developed or developing, but surely there are various routes to achieve goals. In order to establish hypotheses, therefore, this book viewed various cases of clusters which are different in stages of economic development, in stages of agglomeration, and in industrial structures. Cases this book examined include small- and medium-scaled industrial clusters in China, software clusters in India; Japan’s SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) clusters, automobile clusters in Malaysia, industrial clusters and firm-provided training evidences in Bangkok, Thailand, biotechnology clusters in Singapore, and software development and the oil/gas cluster in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.