Driving forces of industrial clusters towards innovative clusters: accelerating the innovation process

In recent years, industrial cluster innovation has received considerable attention fromeconomists and industrial analysts. Currently, innovation is a source of competitiveadvantage for firms and interest in identifying its driving forces has increased from theperspective of industrial clusters. In this paper, we explore the innovation process ofindustrial cluster towards innovative clusters in developing countries. Based on priorstudies, we developed a driving forces model incorporating three main factors – clusterresources, cluster networks, and cluster environment – to simulate and analyse industrialcluster innovation using the Cellular Automata method. Our findings validate the positiverelationships between our three factors and industrial cluster innovation. These findingsreveal that firms with more resources, higher knowledge sharing, and better networkingaccelerate their innovation process more effectively. Beyond the immediate implications ofour findings, we highlight policy recommendations and implications to improvepractitioners’ capabilities related to industrial cluster innovation.