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Mapping a nation of regional clusters

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      Are you hoping to effect change in the economic landscape through federal, state, or local government policy choices? Then follow our Policymaker path.

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      Are you interested in learning more about clusters and conducting action-oriented research? Then follow our Academic or Researcher path.

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    • I am in the Private Sector

      Are you looking into the economic competitiveness of a region through the lens of the private sector? Then follow our Private Sector path.

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  • Cluster
    • Data by Cluster

      A cluster is a regional concentration of related industries that arise out of the various types of linkages or externalities that span across industries in a particular location. The U.S. Benchmark Cluster Definitions are designed to enable systemic comparison across regions. View and compare clusters across the U.S.

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    • Frequently Asked Questions

      How do I compare different clusters on a national level?

      How do I find my region’s strongest cluster(s)?

      How do I identify which cluster my industry belongs in?

      How do I compare local vs traded clusters?

      Are there overlaps between the clusters?

  • Region
    • Data by Region

      A region is broadly defined as a county, economic area (EA), metro/micropolitan statistical area (MSA), or state. The U.S. Benchmark Cluster Definitions use the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis defined economic areas. View and compare regions across the U.S.

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    • Frequently Asked Questions

      How do I compare different regions?

      How do I build a region to meet my needs?

      How is my region doing, especially in comparison to its peer regions?

      How do I find subregions related to my region?

      How do I use the map view to visualize economic data across the country?

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    • Community

      The Community of Practice enables practitioners to share Resources, post Blogs, and find partner Organizations. View and contribute content of interest to the cluster based economic development community.

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Harvard Business School U.S. Economic Development Administration
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  1. Resources
  2. Resources
Tools and Technical Documents

ENOW Explorer

by Jeffery Adkins, NOAA Office for Coastal Management February 4, 2015

Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) provides time-series data on the ocean and Great Lakes economy, which includes six economic sectors dependent on the oceans and Great Lakes: living resources, marine construction, marine transportation, offshore mineral resources, ship and boat building, and tourism and recreation. Use the ENOW Explorer to view and interact with ENOW data for your state or county without having to download the data set.  

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Cluster
Regional Economy
Economic Policy
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Tools and Technical Documents

U.S. Cluster Mapping Launch Event Presentations: Full Listing

by Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of MinnesotaOctober 6, 2014

Michael E. Porter launched the new U.S. Cluster Mapping tool on September 29, 2014 in Minneapolis as part of a two-day conference called Mapping the Midwest’s Future, held by the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The conference hosted over 150 business leaders, policymakers, economic development officials and academics from twelve Midwest states and four Canadian provinces. The Humphrey School of Public Affairs has compiled a full listing of presentations from the conference, with documentation where available.

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Tools and Technical Documents

U.S. Cluster Mapping Webinar for SelectUSA (October 2, 2014)

by U.S. Cluster MappingOctober 3, 2014

On October 2, 2014, members of the core U.S. Cluster Mapping project team demoed the new website to members of SelectUSA, which is the U.S. government program that promotes & facilitates FDI & business investment in the United States.

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Academic Research
Tools and Technical Documents

U.S. Cluster Mapping Launch Event Presentation: The U.S. Cluster Mapping Project: A New Tool For Regional Economic Development

On September 29, 2014, Professor Mercedes Delgado from Temple University's Fox School of Business and Professor Scott Stern from MIT Sloan School of Management delivered a presentation at Mapping the Midwest's Future, a conference held in Minneapolis and hosted by the University of Minnesota that officially launched the new U.S. Cluster Mapping tool. Their presentation focused on the underlying research and methodology behind cluster mapping, and the relevance of clusters to economic development, resilience from recessions, innovation, and improved regional economic performance.

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Cluster
Tools and Technical Documents

Building a Successful Technology Cluster

by Maggie Theroux Fieldsteel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency September 26, 2014

In keeping with the objectives outlined in its 2012 Technology Innovation Roadmap, EPA aims to encourage technological innovation by supporting the development of clusters focused on environmental technology. This report reviews existing literature on industry clusters by Porter, Smilor, Gibson, Kozmetsky, Phillips, and others to summarize the prerequisites for the successful creation of a technology innovation cluster and promote the practices that will sustain it.

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Economic Policy
Tools and Technical Documents

The State of Small Business Lending: Credit Access During the Recovery and How Technology May Change the Game

by Karen Gordon Mills and Brayden McCarthy, Harvard Business School August 5, 2014

Small businesses are core to America’s economic competitiveness. Not only do they employ half of the nation’s private sector workforce – about 120 million people – but since 1995 they have created approximately two‐thirds of the net new jobs in our country. Yet in recent years, small businesses have been slow to recover from a recession and credit crisis that hit them especially hard. This lag has prompted the question, “Is there a credit gap in small business lending?”  

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Economic Policy
Tools and Technical Documents

Strategies for Evaluating Tax Incentives

by The Pew Charitable TrustsJune 26, 2014

A growing number of states are recognizing the importance of evaluating their economic development tax incentives. For example, lawmakers in Indiana, Mississippi, and Rhode Island have recently enacted legislation to ensure their states take three key steps to regularly review and analyze these programs.

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Tools and Technical Documents

FDI in U.S. Metro Areas: The Geography of Jobs in Foreign-Owned Establishments

by Devashree Saha, Kenan Fikri, and Nick Marchio, Brookings, Metropolitan Policy Program June 26, 2014

This paper advances the understanding of foreign direct investment (FDI)—that is to say, the U.S operations of foreign companies—in U.S. metro areas in three ways. First, it provides a framing of what FDI is and why it matters for the United States and its regions. Then it presents new data on jobs in foreign-owned establishments (FOEs) across the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas between 1991 and 2011. It concludes with a discussion of what policymakers and practitioners can do to maximize the amount, quality, and economic benefits of FDI into the United States.

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Economic Policy
Academic Research
Tools and Technical Documents

Clusters and Cluster-Based Development: A Literature Review and Policy Discussion

by Hal Wolman and Diana Hincapie, George Washington Institute of Public Policy April 14, 2014

Cluster theory and its application and cluster-based economic development policy, have been in the forefront of regional economic development theory and practice during the past decade. Cluster theory suggests that firms that are part of a geographically defined cluster benefit from being a part of that cluster and that these benefits result in growth in economic output for the region. It is important for policy makers and practitioners to understand how and in what ways they do so and what actions they can take to enhance economic growth through generating additional cluster benefits.

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Academic Research
Tools and Technical Documents

Zooming In: A Practical Manual for Identifying Geographic Clusters

by Juan Alcácer and Minyuan Zhao, Harvard Business School Working Paper April 14, 2014

This paper takes a close look at the reasons, procedures, and results of cluster identification methods. Despite being a popular research topic in strategy, economics, and sociology, geographic clusters are often studied with little consideration given to the underlying economic activities, the unique cluster boundaries, or the appropriate benchmark of economic concentration. Our goal is to increase awareness of the complexities behind cluster identification, and to provide concrete insights and methodologies applicable to various empirical settings.

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Copyright © 2018 President and Fellows of Harvard College.
All rights reserved.

The U.S. Cluster Mapping Project is led by Professor Michael E. Porter at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School.

This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration.