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Catch-Up Via Agglomeration: A Study Of Township Clusters, Liangding Jia, Sali Li, Stephen Tallman, Yaqin Zheng

Management Faculty Publications

This study examines whether the premises of inter-firm competition and cooperation on cluster performance outcome hold true in the context of China. By examining 87 township clusters in Jiangsu Province, we find that cluster performance is co-determined by the intensity of inter-firm competition and cluster innovativeness. Our results also show that the cluster's competitive intensity mediates the relationship between cluster size and cluster performance, and that a cluster's R&D centers and inter-firm joint actions positively affects a cluster's innovativeness, which in turn contributes to cluster performance. These findings not only provide additional support for strategy theories about clusters in a …