Insights for City Leaders from Four Case Studies in the U.S.
Each of the case studies highlighted in this report offers actionable insights to help city leaders galvanize their cluster building efforts. They represent unique insights for the two types of cluster growth models that exist in the U.S.—cluster initiatives and cluster-oriented economic development plans—in different contexts. For city leaders designing new cluster growth strategies, we also offer a set of six general recommendations to ensure the strategies will maximize economic growth.

Workshop on Tracking the Dynamics of Network Relations in Industry Clusters
George Washington University
November 7, 2014

An introduction to and assessment of the tools, models, and metrics of network-based cluster analysis. 

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America has lost millions of manufacturing jobs since 1980, which has been a serious economic blow to many U.S. metropolitan areas.

In response, metros have pursued an array of economic development strategies, some aimed at protecting or enhancing their manufacturing base, others at diversifying their local economies and attracting new kinds of industries, particularly service firms. 

The Administration is committed to fostering the development of a clean and energy-efficient economy; that is, a “green” economy. This means encouraging the development of green businesses and green products and services, which in turn will create “green jobs.”

With 38,000 workers at more than 170 companies in 22 million square feet of buildings over 7,000 acres, Research Triangle Park is the largest research park in North America. And RTP isn’t just about its big corporate campuses—it has five buildings devoted to start-up ventures, and 60 percent of its companies have 20 employees or fewer. But today’s entrepreneurs, Mr. Geolas said in an interview, want more-inclusive settings where they can meet with one another, share ideas, find new workers, and just enjoy themselves.

Commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle's third annual High-Technology Office Outlook is a comprehensive study of one of the most innovative and dynamic industries in the United States, its impact on local economies, and the growth generated within the commercial real estate sector. From Detroit and the automobile industry in the early 1900s to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 21st century, many predecessors of innovation and advancement have existed over the years, emerging with each new era.

The Southern Governors’ Association, under its 2013 president Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, commissioned the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) to conduct an economic analysis on the value of a regional approach to support the South's advanced manufacturing sector.

This study on the Precision Manufacturing Regional Alliance of Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley illustrates how a region can position its roots in a declining industry into strengths for new cluster growth. Located in the western part of Massachusetts, the Pioneer Valley has deep foundations in manufacturing that include textiles, paper, electrical components, and precision machining.

Clusters are a key element of technology-based economic growth policy aimed at boosting the nation's technology clusters, which are regional concentrations of technology R&D and production, including pools of skilled labor, research facilities, and partnership mechanisms for research and production scale-up. This economic and policy analysis brief from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency within the U.S.

As this report from the NADO Research Foundation illustrates, over the last 30 years South Carolina has developed a flourishing, globally competitive automotive and ground transportation cluster that has become a major engine of economic growth in the state.