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This conceptual paper aims to develop the vision of a novel policy tool called the digital industrial cluster (DIC) thought for a future context shaped by digital economies and Industry 4.0. The DIC departs from the industrial cluster’s precepts and take them into the digital agglomeration phenomenon.

This research uses a discursive and theoretical approach. To create a clear picture related to the research topic, this paper reviews the literature on how industrial clusters deal with digital transformation. The review takes a particular interest in industrial clusters, information and communication technologies, Industry 4.0 and policy tools for digital agglomeration.

The research develops the vision of the DIC as a new policy tool, building its foundations on both industrial clusters and digital economies; furthermore, the DIC was compared with other policy tools based on digital agglomeration to understand the similarities, differences and advantages of the former. Finally, this paper discussed where the DIC could find its way toward implementation and what externalities could be expected from doing so.

This research could be useful for policymakers and cluster organizations looking to deploy policy tools that take advantage of industrial clusters and digital transformation. Besides, the theoretical foundations presented could lead researchers to empirical identification of early incarnations of the DIC.

This paper develops theoretical principles for a new policy tool that connects industrial clusters, digital agglomeration and Industry 4.0 for the first time.

This study aims to determine how much company participation in a type of cluster affects its economic performance.

This study includes companies operating in seven industries (automotive, engineering, textiles, information technology (IT) services, furniture, packaging and nanotechnology) in the Czech Republic. The companies are divided into three groups: members of institutionalized cluster, operating in the same region (natural clusters) and operating in other regions. Data envelopment window analysis is used to measure their performance for 2009–2019.

Results show that the effect of clustering differs among industries. Companies in three industries (automotive, engineering, nanotechnology) reveal a positive impact of the cluster initiative on performance growth. Two industries (textile, packaging) with companies operating in a natural cluster show better performance than those in an institutionalized cluster. Moreover, the IT services and the furniture industries show no positive effect of clustering on corporate performance.

This research includes 686 companies from seven industries and monitored for 11 years. On the one hand, the sample includes a relatively high number of companies overall; but on the other hand, the sample is relatively small, especially for nonclustered companies. The reason is the lack of available financial statements for small companies.

From the perspective of practical cluster policy, the authors can recommend that monitoring the performance of member companies in clusters must be one of the criteria for evaluating the success of a cluster, such as cluster initiatives.

This study distinguishes between long-standing natural clusters in a given industry and institutionalized ones that have emerged because of a top-down initiative. An original database is created for clustered and nonclustered companies in seven industries, covering the entire Czech Republic.

Innovativeness is crucial for industrial cluster firms to gain sustained competitive advantage. This study aims to investigate the effects of inter-firm coopetition on firm innovativeness within a cluster and examines the moderating role of institutional support.

This research adopts an empirical survey method using multi-source data from 181 industrial cluster firms. Regression is used to test the hypotheses of this study.

The results show that cooperation and constructive conflict promote firm innovativeness, while destructive conflict is detrimental to firm innovativeness. Moreover, the study also finds that cooperation interacts with both types of conflict to affect firm innovativeness, where cooperation and constructive conflict interact negatively on firm innovativeness, while cooperation and destructive conflict interact positively on firm innovativeness. In addition, institutional support weakens the effects of cooperation and destructive conflict on innovativeness, respectively, but has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between constructive conflict and innovativeness.

These findings enrich the current research on coopetition. The interaction effects of cooperation and both types of conflict on innovativeness deepen the concept of coopetition and responds to the call to further explore the interaction effects within coopetition. The moderating role of institutional support fills a gap in the empirical research on the role of institutional factors affecting coopetition on innovation and also provides valuable suggestions for firm managers and governments in industrial clusters.

This study aims to systematise the links between firms’ strategies (corporate and business) and the cluster dynamics (through the cluster life cycle [CLC] perspective) and propose an integrative framework bridging firms’ strategic behaviour and cluster dynamics (CLC).

The methodology used is an integrative literature review, which provides a distinctive form of research.

The study identifies several links between firms’ strategies (corporate and business) and the cluster dynamics (CLC), namely: (1) firms’ strategies as a triggering factor of cluster evolution; (2) firms’ strategies and path's decline; (3) firms’ strategies and cluster’s renewal; (4) resilience strategies and the cluster life cycle; and (5) cluster’s features and firms’ strategies.

This study contributes to developing strategic management theory and cluster theory by bridging firms' strategies and cluster dynamics (CLC). It proposes a new conceptualisation of the impact of cluster dynamics on firms' strategic choices – firstly, it proposes a specific approach to identify the CLC; and secondly, it develops an integrative framework model that relates firms' strategies and each stage of the CLC. These are theoretical tools relevant for further advancements in this area of research, as they can be applied in studies of different clusters for validation, something that was not done.

The integrative framework is expected to be helpful to company managers, allowing them to design better strategies that account for dynamic cluster environments.

This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by systematising the links between firms' strategies (corporate and business) and the cluster dynamics (CLC).

The purpose of this study is to explore and conducts a critical literature review to answer a fundamental question in the industrial district literature: are clusters and industrial (clusters/IDs) driving sustainability innovation? By intersecting different yet related strands of literature, the authors take stock of what the authors know about sustainability innovation in clusters/IDs.

This paper reviews the literature for conceptualizing sustainability innovation in clusters/districts.

Insights point out that the sustainability innovation process (development and diffusion) in clusters/IDs and their firms couples into mainstream cluster/IDs framework; clusters/IDs enable sustainability innovation through usual mechanisms, fostering collective change toward sustainability innovation, vis-à-vis other settings and strengthening firm sustainability innovation and performance. Sustainability innovation in clusters/IDs requires coupling different multi-scalar institutional systems effectively, and the cooperation of local organizations and policymakers for co-designing dedicated policies. Collective actions are important and firm heterogeneity needs to be considered in the clusters/IDs framework.

This study is original because it provides state-of-the-art on sustainability innovation in clusters/districts, enabling the topic to advance in this direction.

This paper examines whether technological changes that promote communications between investors and managers help bridge the gap in the cost of equity capital among firms in different regions.

We use the online interaction platforms of listed firms in China and utilize brokerage presence (BP) to capture the geographic distribution of financial factors. We explore whether online interactions would reduce the cost of equity to a greater extent for firms located in low brokerage presence regions (hereafter “low-BP firms”) than those in high brokerage presence regions (hereafter “high-BP firms”).

We find low-BP firms benefit more from an improved information environment created by online interactions. We also find that posts about low-BP firms are more value-relevant and useful in processing corporate disclosures. Further, a higher number of interactions significantly enhances more informational efficiency for low-BP firms, and the effect of reducing the gap in financing costs is more pronounced when corporate information is complex.

We conclude that online interactions alleviate geography-induced information frictions and create a relatively level playing field for firms located in all regions.

This research examines the impact of the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration Project (NRECDP) on poverty reduction and income growth in rural China.

The study develops a theoretical framework, which considers the role of geographical, technological, institutional and cultural factors for the e-commerce poverty alleviation (e-CPA) model. Empirically, this study applies the difference-in-differences (DID) model and the event study approach to evaluate the effectiveness of NRECDP on the basis of large-scale county-level and household-level panel data spanning 2010 to 2020.

The study found that the NRECDP, as a government-led, information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled, market-based program, has led to a significant increase in per capita output of primary industry employees, as well as in the disposable income of rural residents, especially those in national-level poverty-stricken (NP) counties. The interventions of the NRECDP achieved these positive outcomes through transportation and Internet infrastructure improvement, ICT adoption and human capital accumulation in impoverished towns and villages in remote rural areas. These effects are larger in the eastern region of China, followed by the central region, whereas the weakest effects were found in the western region. However, we found little evidence of the NRECDP increasing household developmental expenditure.

The study findings have important practical and policy implications for rural e-commerce development and self-sustained poverty alleviation solutions. The research revealed the significance of government NRECDP interventions for increasing rural income, reducing living costs, and empowering the rural population in its multiple social roles, namely, as consumers, producers, employees and microentrepreneurs. The local cultural context may also play a role in ICT adoption and entrepreneurship cultivation with a downstream effect on the effectiveness of e-CPA practices. Policymakers would need to ensure a supportive entrepreneur-friendly environment for rural e-commerce development and continue implementing progressive policies for poverty alleviation.

This study explores poverty alleviation issues in China by developing for the first time a multi-faceted framework that is subsequently tested by both county-level and household-level large-scale observations. Also, it is the first study to provide nationwide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of e-CPA in narrowing down the spatial and digital divides in China. In addition to the impact of geography, technology and governmental support, this study also sheds light on the role of culture in the adoption and diffusion of digital technologies and as a source of local entrepreneurial opportunities.

The paper aims to review prior literature on the impact of audit quality and climate change reporting on corporate performance. It also aims to offer avenues for future research.

Based on the systematic literature review, bibliometric investigation and forest plot, the authors systematized the scientific knowledge from 183 papers.

Earlier studies either focused on audit quality and corporate performance or discussed the link between climate change and corporate performance. However, the way that audit quality and climate change can together influence corporate performance is yet to be examined. The authors fill the gap by examining the possible link between audit quality and climate change and establishing the influence of it on corporate performance from the existing literature.

Because of the immense importance of the company's contribution to climate change, the research findings will open up avenues for future research. In addition, findings will be useful for world policymakers in strengthening or modifying existing corporate responsibility policies.