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The Malaysian Government through the interventionist stance created an enabling environment for SMEs. Deliberate efforts for economic development started in the form of Industrial Estates and Export Processing Zones since early 1990s. This paper is a brief account of government efforts and its result for cluster development, in the light of recent literature. It is found that despite consistent efforts, the Malaysian answer to Silicon Valley – Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) – could not become an industrial cluster in a strict manner of the term used in the industrial cluster literature. This review highlights an array of bottlenecks that impede the competitiveness of MSC. The critical observation is that the SME firms in this “constructed cluster” are not enjoying the benefits of co-location externalities rather consider government’s financial support as an important factor affecting their co-location decision. In the absence of the significant qualitative research in the Malaysian cluster milieu, the purpose of this paper is the unique attempt to compile the previous results of significant work on the MSC and proposes future directions of research on policy-led clusters.

This paper synthesized and arranged most recent literature on economic development efforts made by Malaysian Government. Furthermore, it highlights the issues faced by policy-led cluster of MSC.

There is scant research on policy-led clusters like MSC where government plays an instrumental role from conception of this ICT cluster to development of programs and initiatives for the sustainability of it. However, the review of recent studies indicates that MSC faces some limitations to perform as cluster. There is a strong evidence that firms are not enjoying the benefits of clustering rather are attracted toward the financial incentives offered by the government in return of the firms co-location decision.

The theoretical contribution of the review is that it signals the scarcity of both breadth and depth of literature on policy-driven cluster. Although, few notable attempts indicated how cluster initiatives influence the clusters, yet various dimensions need to be explored in order to reach the conclusive findings. The current review provides a strong foundation for further empirical research. For example, the other possible avenues could be, cluster evaluation practices in policy-led clusters; enablers and barriers to innovation in policy-led clusters; development of comprehensive indicators for principled engagement, shared motivation and joint actions in collaborative initiative development and the relational dimension of networks like technological distance between the focal firms and local SMEs.

The review highlights that government agencies and the firms in the policy-led clusters perceive the cluster initiatives differently. For government an initiative may be a success but for firms it may be just eyewash. This perceptual difference can disrupt the government efforts for this cluster. Firms are dependent on Multimedia Development Corporation. They consider themselves as a guest in the cluster and expect that government will provide everything. Mere presence/attendance of firms in the programs may not indicate the effectiveness of the initiative.

The prime objective of the review was to highlight an array of bottlenecks that impede the competitiveness of MSC to become an ICT cluster. Since there is a dearth of significant qualitative research in the Malaysian cluster milieu particularly with respect to cluster initiatives taken in MSC, this review therefore is a unique attempt that compiles the previous results of significant work on a policy-driven MSC (ICT cluster) and proposes future direction of research on policy-led clusters.

A large number of East Asian economies have benefited from the diaspora employed in the large North American and European clusters. The diaspora acquired valuable skills, developed contacts and financial wealth. Much has been written about the professional and personal obstacles of brain circulation but scant work has been done to highlight the structural factors influencing brain circulation as well as diaspora strategies in the Malaysian context. This article aims to review the brain circulation theory and pertinent literature on Malaysian clusters and to highlight the structural factors inhibiting diaspora and flow of talent to Malaysia.

This is a discussion paper on the issues surrounding diaspora strategies.

On the basis of the review of successful diaspora of China, India, Korea and Taiwan, cluster organizations should take independent initiatives to contact the diaspora networks abroad in order to leverage their skills, contacts and finances through alumni and virtual networks.

Successful diaspora programs in China, Taiwan and India do not guarantee that imitation of those programs will result in success elsewhere.

The article reviews the pertinent literature and highlights the structural factors inhibiting diaspora and flow of talent to Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the role of public policy in the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems in Poland.

The paper assumes a qualitative approach to researching and analysing how public policy enables and constrains the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems. The authors conducted a series of focus groups with regional and national policy makers, enterprises and intermediaries in three Polish voivodeships (regions) – Malopolska, Mazowieckie and Pomorskie.

The paper finds that applying the entrepreneurial ecosystems approach is a challenging prospect for public policy characterised by a theory-practice gap. Despite the attraction of entrepreneurial ecosystems as a heuristic to foster entrepreneurial activity, the cases highlight the complexity of implementing the framework conditions in practice. As the Polish case demonstrates, there are aspects of entrepreneurial ecosystems that are beyond the immediate scope of public policy.

The results challenge the view that the entrepreneurial ecosystems framework represents a readily implementable public policy solution to stimulate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial growth. Insights are drawn from three regions, although by their nature these are predominantly city centric, highlighting the bounded geography of entrepreneurial ecosystems.

This paper poses new questions regarding the capacity of public policy to establish and extend entrepreneurial ecosystems. While public policy can shape the framework and system conditions, the paper argues that these interventions are often based on superficial or incomplete interpretations of the entrepreneurial ecosystems literature and tend to ignore or underestimate informal institutions that can undermine these efforts. As such, by viewing the ecosystems approach as a panacea for growth policy makers risk opening Pandora’s box.

The purpose of this paper is to categorize industrial clusters, and then compare three industrial clusters of three countries from the perspectives of hard environment, soft environment, factors from supply and demand sides, and the network mechanism.

Data were collected through interview with cluster coordinators. Qualitative case studies were conducted.

The center of excellence behaves well in nearly all aspects, while the spatially narrowly distributed specific center of innovation mainly exploits benefits from its concentrated sector. For the Chinese comprehensive technology incubator, relatively limited geographical space and broad sectorial distribution endow it with unclear strengths, implying the inadequacy of interconnectedness and industry relatedness mentioned by Porter.

Data were collected mainly from cluster coordinators, implying further data collecting and more comprehensive analysis.

It only makes sense to compare industrial clusters that are comparable with each other. Elements must be matched to facilitate the network interactions, and hence the innovation performance of clusters.

This paper contributes to the theoretical basis through it analyzing and clarifying the scales to measure industrial clusters, and answers the question: what is the situation of industrial clusters behaving in several aspects including hard environment, soft environment, supply, demand, network interactions and innovation performance?

The traditional models of economic development are being challenged and the role of stakeholders is being reprioritised, resulting in an increased emphasis on the SMME sector. A practical strategy is needed in South Africa for reducing input costs and promoting the implementation and sustainability of a technology transfer initiative aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the small/micro manufacturing enterprises. However, there is insufficient knowledge to inform this process. The aim of this paper is to understand the constraints to manufacturing competitiveness and to proffer a model for inter‐firm linkages appropriate to the South African context.

The purpose of the paper is to explore knowledge accumulation in research on pedagogy in entrepreneurship education, with particular attention to how core journal outlets, core topics and core scholarly works have developed over time.

The authors combine a systematic literature review technique and bibliometric analysis to depict the development of this stream of research in the period 1995–2018.

Findings from the analyses suggests that research addressing pedagogy in entrepreneurship education has developed into a coherent research theme over the past decade, with a noticeable cognitive structure in core research topics and core works, as well as a number of core journal outlets for debates and dissemination of findings.

The study is anchored in a bibliometric research tradition and influenced by the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.

The paper provided contributes to the understanding of knowledge accumulation in research addressing pedagogy in entrepreneurial education.

More significant reductions in residential primary energy consumption and in space heating in particular, can contribute to achieving climate change and energy efficiency objectives. Project information from demonstration projects is now becoming available for highly energy-efficient renovation concepts.

The goal of this research is to understand how owner-occupants can be persuaded to apply far-reaching energy-saving renovations of single-family houses. To this end, the research examines drivers and barriers of owners to adopt highly energy-efficient renovation concepts. Theory on decision processes in innovation diffusion is used, in order to examine the adoption of integrated concepts to achieve high energy performance. Belgian case studies (different building typologies) were examined. Adoption drivers and barriers perceived by owner-occupants are analysed. This leads to improved understanding of characteristics that can persuade future adopters. Possible measures are discussed to overcome barriers in the introduction phase of innovation diffusion, and are illustrated more in detail with a case study. The research shows that especially expectations of improved comfort provide an opportunity for the market entry of integrated concepts. Owners, architects and contractors could benefit from increased attractiveness, competitiveness, affordability and availability of highly energy-efficient renovations. Holistic approaches (stronger coordination and clustered renovation concepts), higher skill competence (education) and improved communication (actor networks, significant economic incentives) are recommended.

This article focuses on the following questions: 1) How do secondary social studies teachers working in schools of color experience pedagogical negotiations when trying to teach students thoughtful, critically informed citizenship and government and school accountability mandates? and 2) How does teaching with lessons grounded in the principles of authentic intellectual work (AIW) affect this negotiation experience? We employed a phenomenological framework as the methodological basis for eliciting two classroom teachers’ experiences, both of whom have advanced degrees in social studies education and several years of teaching experience in schools of color and of poverty. The findings show that prior to the incorporation of lessons based on the principles of authentic intellectual work, these teachers’ negotiation experiences had strong negatively affective dimensions based on a zero-sum pedagogical conceptualization of curriculum. Following the introduction of lessons based on AIW, these negatively affective dimensions began to recede from their experiences and were replaced by more positive ones. Given that classroom teachers are the ultimate arbiters of curriculum in their classrooms, this research has implications for improving the experiences of secondary social studies teachers working in schools of color.

This paper attempts to model the transmission of volatility between producer and consumer prices in the fresh potato, tomato, and cucumber markets in Greece.

The transmission mechanism of the price volatility is modeled using the most popular multivariate GARCH models while taking into consideration possible asymmetries in the transmission process. The models utilized are the DVECH and the BEKK models from the VECH family, as well as the CCC model and the DCC model from the family of conditional correlation models. The possible asymmetric effects are evaluated using asymmetric GARCH models, as well as estimating volatility impulse responses for independent shocks.

The results reveal that, in the tomato and cucumber markets, which are regulated by the Common Market Organization of fruits and vegetables, producers are less vulnerable to volatility shocks transmitted from consumers. In contrast, in the non-regulated potato market, producers are affected by spillover effects from consumers.

This study is limited to a few commodities (i.e. potatoes, tomatoes, and cucumbers); however, it could be extended to additional commodities.

The results of this study show that, if producers are organized on a cooperative basis within the regulative framework of the CAP, like the tomato and cucumber producers, their place in the food supply chain is strengthened, although the CAP targets more market-oriented agricultural markets that are more exposed to world prices.

The present study attempts to understand the transmission of volatility between producer and consumer prices in the fresh potato, tomato, and cucumber markets in Greece, which is not apparent from previous studies. Furthermore, the volatility clusters that are identified in the present study are associated with certain CAP reforms.