Multinational firms can substitute for the local networks that cluster theory treats as essential.

Evidence

Empirical evidence suggests that there are examples of film clusters where national and transnational organisations have proved more important than localised networks (e.g., internal linkages within transnational corporations may substitute for cluster linkages) (Turok, 2003). Others (e.g., Enright, 2000, p. 115) emphasize an interdependent model ‘in which foreign multinationals play a critical role in the cluster, and location in the cluster plays a critical role in the strategy of the foreign multinational’. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 850

Categorization

• XREF: Cuts against the standard agglomeration story (Porter, Saxenian) where proximity and localised networks drive cluster advantage.
• SEED: Essay angle: ‘When the corporation is the cluster’ — how intra-firm linkages can mimic the trust and knowledge spillovers attributed to geography.