The story of cluster as a cross-boundary concept: From local development to management studies

The chapter explores in an original manner the evolutionary trajectories of the cluster concept over time through the application of analytical tools coming from the realm of bibliometric analysis and social network analysis. In particular, we build on a previous work (Lazzeretti et al. J Econ Geogr 14(1), 21–43; 2014) to observe the evolution of the cluster literature alongside two main dimensions: (1) publication outlets and (2) paper keywords. Our analysis confirms the interdisciplinary character of the cluster concept, with the presence of publication outlets from different research fields. However, the contribution of management and innovation studies increases over time. The longitudinal analysis of the keywords confirms this trend and reveals that the cluster literature is evolving from economic and sociological-related issues to management-related topics, where innovation and firm performance are the leading issues.