The role of leading firms in explaining evolutionary paths of growth: Italian and Turkish clusters on the move

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of the long-term development of the footwear industry in Italy and Turkey, focusing in particular on their main industrial districts/cluster: one in Italy and three in Turkey. Our research contributes to the reflection on the evolving relationship between history-dependent localisation externalities and firm performances. Agglomeration benefits do exist in the various stages of the cluster life cycle. However, not all firms benefit equally from being in a cluster, and not all firms show an accelerated pattern of growth after being located in a cluster. We found that after the take-off and the cluster’s emergence, the dynamics of clusters is driven by the ability of some leading firms to connect the cluster (and its internal supply chains) to external markets and to global knowledge sources.