This book offers empirical insight into industrial clustering in the Irish context and in particular inter-firm dynamics in traditional, local industrial sectors: fish processing, printing, and bakery. By compiling and reviewing the relevant theoretical and empirical cluster literature and offering a step-by-step guide as to how to identify clusters at a local and regional level this book appeals to both academic researchers and policy makers who wish to undertake similar studies.

In a departure from the predominantly Porter (1990, 1998) influenced cluster studies that were performed on Irish manufacturing throughout the 1990s i.e. studies which examined primarily market based relationships in the national context, this book focuses on local and regional industry concentrations and the nature of inter-firm relationships within those concentrations. Underpinning this approach is a broad theoretical framework that combines three streams of related literature: industrial districts, Porter's clusters and regional systems of innovation.