Local Cluster Development and Global Brain Circulation

High-tech clusters are important hubs of innovation and production in an increasingly interconnected global economy. There has been an increasing interest from scholars in the embeddedness of local cluster development, in particular of high-tech industries in emergent economies, and global connectivity, in particular in the dynamics and role of inter-cluster brain circulation (IBC). IBC denotes knowledge, technology and practice diffusion and translation through individual networks between emergent and typically more established clusters that are globally interconnected through these network ties. Of particular interest to this study is the controversial role of IBC in stimulating the growth and upgrading of larger/growing versus smaller/nascent clusters. This study has important implications for understanding cluster connectivity, the role of governance in cluster growth and upgrading, and the effective catch-up strategies of emerging economies.