Complementary frameworks for examining global innovation: aligning GVCs, industrial clusters, and entrepreneurial ecosystems

This chapter discusses the importance of production clusters and entrepreneurial firms continuously generating innovation if they are to sustain their long-term competitiveness in today’s global economy. The study of the complexity brought about by globalization has been investigated by the global value chain (GVC) framework, which has improved the understanding of how clusters and firms compete globally. However, neither the cluster theory nor the GVC framework address firms’ innovation through an explicit dynamic perspective and dedicate only partial attention to the role of entrepreneurial ventures. This chapter draws on elements from the developing entrepreneurial ecosystems literature to complement the cluster-GVC perspective and offers a finer-grained approach to the study of innovation in the global economy.