The World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Research Institute, and the Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID), in collaboration with researchers affiliated with the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), recently conducted a study on Africa s domestic enterprises to improve the understanding of the constraints micro and small enterprises in Africa face in improving productivity and expanding their markets. In Africa, there are stark performance gaps between domestically owned enterprises and foreign-owned enterprises in terms of sales performance, productivity, and ability to reach distant markets. Among others, size appears to be a dominant factor in explaining the gap. Against this background, the study analyzes how naturally formed industrial clusters concentrations of enterprises engaged in same or closely related industrial activities in specific locations could potentially mitigate constraints Africa s micro and small enterprises face and enhance their business performance. The study is one of the first comprehensive quantitative inquiries on industrial clusters in Africa. The analysis specifically focuses on the role of spontaneously grown clusters of light manufacturing industries based on a set of original case studies of industrial clusters conducted for this research project. One of the key findings from the case studies was that cluster-based micro and small enterprises are performing better than similar micro and small enterprises outside of the clusters in terms of sales performance and ability to reach distant markets. Market access is a leading reason for cluster-based enterprises to choose their current locations. However, cluster-based enterprises face another set of unique growth constraints. By the very nature of spontaneous agglomera tion, new enterprises continue to flow to the clusters seeking the profit opportunities and better access to markets at such locations. The result can be intense competition in addition to increased congestion. Space constraints often impede growth within clusters. The lack of alternative locations available for industrial activities in the same cities, generic infrastructure bottlenecks, and unclear zoning policies and their unpredictable changes limit firms location choices and constrain their mobility. While competition should improve efficiency, lack of capacity among those competing cluster-based enterprises to invest and innovate does not generate growth out of the competition. The vast majority of naturally formed clusters of light manufacturing industries in Africa are still at a survival level, where agglomeration externalities are only limited to expand quantity but not quality as we observe in more advanced innovation-oriented clusters in elsewhere in the world. Existing studies on such natural industrial clusters in Africa have found that the lack of managerial skills among entrepreneurs running micro and small enterprises is a major constraint for innovation and growth in the clusters. As a part of this study, pilot managerial skills training programs were conducted in two industrial clusters on an experimental basis, where a group of randomly selected entrepreneurs within the clusters were given three-week long crush course of based management such as bookkeeping, marketing, business planning, and production management. The impact evaluation of the experiments showed significant positive impacts of the training programs on value added and gross profits of enterprises. Raising the current survival-type industrial clusters, which have been formed as a coping mechanism to weak investment climate, into more dynamic innovating clusters will be an important avenue for fostering growth of micro and small enterprises in Africa. While national efforts to improve investment climate and investments in human capital are undoubtedly important, there could be more targeted policies to be formulated, in complementing general policies, to support growth of micro and small domestic enterprises using existing industrial clusters as a natural springboard for their growth. In that context, the study discusses the merit of cluster-based managerial human capital development to build steps toward more innovation-oriented clusters, the importance of sound spatial planning policy, particularly at the local level in the context of urban planning, the need to expand market access and economic linkages for industrial clusters including regional integration and linkages with large enterprises.

Programs to improve the performance of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) through clustering is now becoming the design of industrial and innovation policies which is implemented by policy makers in Indonesia. There has been a common perception that clusters are able to encourage entrepreneurship, learning, and productivity improvements for MSEs more effectively. This common perception, however, should be further explored whether clustered MSEs successfully obtain "collective efficiency" from clusters or they even suffer from "collective failure". This book is an attempt to reveal such issues of MSEs clustering by presenting a case study on small industrial clusters in Central Java which is well known as the "heartland" of MSEs operate in clusters. While supporting programs are persistently introduced to such clusters, in fact, to obtain "the collective efficiency of clustering" is not so easy. Unfair competition accompanied by ineffective cooperation might be factors that cause to clustered MSEs failed to gain the benefit of clustering.

This book addresses the implications of technology, entrepreneurship, and business ‎‎development gadgets ‎for applications in societies. In this book proceedings, we attempt to address the importance and impact of digitalization and ‎on business development in the context ‎of economic ‎diversity, that is through various propositions of ‎modern technology and entrepreneurial ‎actions, and through the lens of case studies, experiments, empirical ‎assessments, just to name a ‎few research methodological stances and approaches.‎ This book highlights a range of topics in the fields of technology, ‎entrepreneurship, business administration, accounting, and economics that can contribute to business ‎development in developing countries, such as learning machines, artificial intelligence, big data, ‎deep ‎‎learning, game-based learning, management information system, ‎accounting information ‎system, knowledge management, entrepreneurship and social enterprise, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, business policy and strategic management, international management and organizations, organizational behavior and HRM, operations management and logistics research, controversial issues in management and organizations, turnaround, corporate entrepreneurship, and innovation, legal issues, business ethics, and firm governance, and firm financial affairs, non-traditional research, and creative methodologies. This book is ideal for academicians, activists, curriculum ‎developers, researchers, professionals, administrators, and policymakers. The readers of this book could gain an up-to-date know-how on state-of-the-modern technology, entrepreneurship, and business development and achievements in this regard from the research standpoint of view.

This study investigates the interplay of inter-firm linkages and business strategies and their impacts on performance of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) that operate in small industrial clusters in the Province of Central Java, Indonesia. Many studies in this field were commonly conducted in partial works whilst a substantial work that discussed a more comprehensive picture on their development by means of focusing on causal nexus of inter-firm linkages, business strategies and performances of MSEs which were constructed in an integrated model has not been explored in detail. As an attempt to fill the gap, this study intends to examine twofold namely (1) the relational dimensions of inter-firm linkage mechanism and business strategies on performance of MSEs and (2) the pathways in which MSEs have benefited the linkages and business strategies to attain their goals. To do so, this study carries out an empirical assessment of the causal nexus connecting inter-firm linkages and business strategies to performances of 310 MSEs that operate in 14 small industrial clusters in Central Java. Given such triangular relationships, this study found that inter-firm linkages seem to be less effective in affecting MSEs' performances rather than business strategies. Based on qualitative data collected from the field survey, it is found that the lack of trust among the clustered entrepreneurs and the existence of institutional problems caused the ineffectiveness of inter-firm linkages to positively contribute to MSEs' performances. As a result, while MSEs in the clusters cooperate with each other as a consequence of proximity advantage of clusters, they also hinge on their own business strategies in order to attain better performance of the firms.

Governments and regional authorities often express the belief that the key to prosperity and economic expansion is related to the ability of countries to sustain regional clusters of competitiveness and innovation. The book reviews the most important conceptual approaches to the analysis of the emergence, growth and evolution of clusters of innovation. Drawing from the different experiences of industrial districts and high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley, Boston's biotech region, and Hsinchu-Taipei, the contributions in this book offer a broad interpretative framework and policy implications for the creation and strengthening of competitive clusters. Themes include: · the wide variety of existing clusters and the diversity in their emergence and growth; · the international mobility of factors and demand linkages; · the role of different network types and the social setting; · the accumulation of capabilities in key large actors and the importance of spinoffs and new firm formation; · the role of different learning regimes and sectoral specificities; · the importance of social networks, labour mobility, and face-to-face contacts as vehicles of knowledge spillovers. Broad implications are drawn for the design of policies to encourage successful economic clusters in developed and developing clusters.

Examining the role of the much-vaunted concepts of regional clusters in the prosperity and economic expansion of countries, this work looks at the different experiences of industrial districts and high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley, Boston's biotech region, and Hsinchu-Taipei.