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Clusters and Industry 4.0 – do they fit together?

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  • Marta Götz
  • Barbara Jankowska

Abstract

Industry 4.0 heralds the profound transformation of business models by enabling the fusion of virtual and real worlds and the application of digitization, automatization and robotics in manufacturing. We review the basic premises of Industry 4.0 and map them against the clusters’ features with the aim to establish the kind of relations between these two categories. By exploring the likely impact of clusters on Industry 4.0, our discussion revolves around the broader question of the role of regional ecosystems in industrial transformation. Clusters, thanks to the advantages such as knowledge base and mechanisms, agglomeration economies and externalities (labour pool and critical mass of firms) and favourable more stable, less uncertain environment of trust and cooperation, may facilitate the digital transformation, particularly its phasing-in and testing phases. Notwithstanding this potential, it should be stressed that not all clusters would be able to play such prominent role. Only these equipped with adequate knowledge base and providing some expertise in the field of IT solutions, robotics, automatics, and so on, i.e. the technologies crucial to Industry 4.0 seem predestined to contribute to the emergence of fully fledged industrial internet. Despite seemingly some inconsistency between these two categories, clusters can facilitate the business transformation towards Industry 4.0.

Suggested Citation

  • Marta Götz & Barbara Jankowska, 2017. "Clusters and Industry 4.0 – do they fit together?," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(9), pages 1633-1653, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:25:y:2017:i:9:p:1633-1653
    DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2017.1327037
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Fahd BOUNDI-CHRAKI, 2018. "Competitividad de los sectores manufactureros de Alemania y España, 1995-2015: análisis de la ventaja absoluta de coste con datos de panel dinámico," Revista Galega de Economía, University of Santiago de Compostela. Faculty of Economics and Business., vol. 27(1), pages 5-16.
    2. Szabó, Zs. Roland & Horváth, Dóra & Hortoványi, Lilla, 2019. "Hálózati tanulás az ipar 4.0 korában [Network learning in the 4.0 era of industry]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 72-94.
    3. Fromhold-Eisebith, Martina & Marschall, Philip & Peters, Robert & Thomes, Paul, 2021. "Torn between digitized future and context dependent past – How implementing ‘Industry 4.0’ production technologies could transform the German textile industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    4. Asbjørn Karlsen & Henrik Brynthe Lund & Markus Steen, 2019. "Cluster absorptive capacity: Two types of intermediaries in technology upgrading of manufacturing clusters," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_17, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    5. Yantai Chen & Jing Li & Ruoying Li, 2021. "Cluster Internationalization: Qualitative Review, Theoretical Direction, and the Rise of Emerging Markets’ Themes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-26, September.
    6. Marta Gotz, 2019. "The Industry 4.0 Induced Agility and New Skills in Clusters," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 13(2), pages 72-83.
    7. Evangelos Rasvanis & Vassilis Tselios, 2021. "Do agglomeration economies matter where natural endowments are? Lessons from Greece," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 1009-1024, June.
    8. Shahbaz Khan & Rubee Singh & Abid Haleem & Jacinta Dsilva & Sadia Samar Ali, 2022. "Exploration of Critical Success Factors of Logistics 4.0: A DEMATEL Approach," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-14, February.
    9. Horváth, Dóra & Szabó, Roland Zs., 2019. "Driving forces and barriers of Industry 4.0: Do multinational and small and medium-sized companies have equal opportunities?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 119-132.
    10. Malgorzata Wachowska, 2018. "Cluster as place of efficient diffusion of knowledge. Experiences of Lower Silesia," Managerial Economics, AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 19(2), pages 227-249.

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