The Role of Industry Clusters in Promoting Competitive Advantage - Example

The paper “The Role of Industry Clusters in Promoting Competitive Advantage ” is a brilliant example of the report on management. This chapter will conduct a review of the literature with the aim of establishing the existing knowledge regarding industrial clusters and knowledge sharing and identifying gaps that may exist in literature. The literature review is organised into different sections, which include management theory that relates industry clusters to strategic management theory, introduction and an explanation why industry clusters, knowledge sharing in industry clusters, competitive advantage and how industry clusters play a role to promote it, a research model that explains how the reviewed literature can contribute to research and lastly the formulation of research questions based on identified research gaps. The literature review chapter will end by discussing a research model which is going to be adapted in the thesis.

I will first review the literature relating to management theory since it has direct relevance to this thesis. I will show how management theory is linked to cluster theory. In the following sections, I will review the literature relating to cluster theory, the knowledge sharing that occurs in clusters, and the competitive advantage that different authors perceive as emerging from industry clusters. All this while, the reviewed literature will be used to support the notion that knowledge sharing is a critical aspect of successful industry clusters.

Searching the literature was an intense process that included using specific keywords relevant to the topic of this thesis. Keywords such as Industry clusters, knowledge sharing in clusters, competitive advantage in industry clusters, Dubai industrial clusters, management and clusters among others were used. The search results were perused for relevance and the most ideal books, academic journals and reports, and government reports chosen for use.

Management theory.
This literature review starts with a definition of management theory because industry clusters lie within the larger management debate.