Who Takes The Lead? How Roles And Importance Of Organizational Actors Change Throughout The Early Life Cycle Of A Cluster

Clusters may originate from random and accidental events, but the emergence and growth of successful clusters depend on favorable framework conditions and the agency of central organizational actors such as universities, cluster organization, incumbent industry firms, funding sources and start-ups. This paper analyses how the roles and importance of these central organizational actors change throughout the emergence and growth of an innovative cluster. Based on an in-depth case study of the robotics cluster in Odense, Denmark, we develop a theoretical framework for how the roles of organizational actors change throughout the early life cycle of a spontaneously emerging cluster.