Clusters can serve a twin purpose. They can be used to advance the performance of companies. Furthermore, they can also be used as an instrument to increase the level of understanding of the economy (Makuwaza, 2001). This double purpose permits clusters to assume an agency role to drive the economic performance of a region and thus enhance economic development (Porter, 2000). This is due to the fact that the use of clusters offer a
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commanding set of instruments for analysis, programme formulation, and regional organisation and implementation to escalate the value of economic development programmes (Le Veen, 1998). For example, clustering firms within an industry can develop short-term industry attraction initiatives through identification of potential sectors and clearly defining the sector specific advantages. In addition, the formation of an industry cluster is expedient in defining medium term policies for the establishment, growth and retention of regional industries and in developing long-term strategies to sustain regional growth (Makuwaza, 2001).
In comparatively short time frames, the attraction of firms to a particular geographic location is the only method by which a district can achieve substantial growth in job opportunities (Porter 1998). However, there is a necessity to offset this approach with policies to retain and enlarge current industries and strengthening policies and strategies to establish new enterprises and clusters (Barkley & Henry, 1997). Attraction initiatives are most effective when they hinge on the opportunities intrinsic within existing clusters coupled with the advantages the region offers to enterprises similar to those in the cluster based firms that may already thrive in the region. For example, sturdy clusters are likely to entice higher quality inward investment (Botham & Downes, 1999). They are more likely to yield lasting results than are attraction efforts directed at those enterprises that lie outside the region’s existing cluster initiatives. Similarly, attraction efforts that rely on broad features and advantages such as tax windows and incentives and training and skills development subsidies are less effective (Makuwaza, 2001).
Porter (2007) contends that a significant number of new businesses are formed in existing initiatives as opposed to remote locations. One of the critical considerations for this is that within a group of firms in a cluster there is superior information about prospects for new businesses. These opportunities are more easily identified in clusters, for example, new gaps in products, services or suppliers. At the same time, obstacles to entry are typically lower in clusters than they are somewhere else (Porter, 2007). For example, the mandatory assets, critical skills, necessary inputs and an established labour pool are readily available at the location, or are more easily accessed from the confines of the cluster. Moreover, local institutions that provide financial may call for lower risk premiums on capital based on their understanding of the industry or familiarity with the operations of the firms within the cluster (Porter, 2007). Concurrently, conventional clusters can also reduce the
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perceived risks of entry, especially if there are foreign-based cluster participants (Porter, 2007).
In the intermediate term, current clusters initiatives are important in formulating development programmes that require extended phases to pay off. Bank (2009), foregrounds the dynamics of economic development, stressing the importance of helping small and medium sized enterprises to become prominent and recognised in a region.
Nevertheless, initiatives to establish new businesses and solidify economic foundations require two to five years to begin producing tangible results (Porter, 2003). The important factor in defining these policies is to identify which types of small businesses to target for support and which foundations to improve in order to sustain and support the growth of specific industries in the region. In this case the analysis used in establishing attraction targets and central to attraction programmes is also relevant, though the applications are different (Makuwaza, 2001). Here, the plans will be more indirect. In order to realise longer-term economic goals, the focus should be on initiatives that improve the economic districts ability to maintain, strengthen and develop industry (Porter, 2007).
By assisting start-up firms to establish themselves either to fill gaps in existing industry groupings or to spread the present clusters into new markets, in the long term, a region can reinforce its economy and generate new employment (Porter, 2007). The region can also commence efforts to address fissures and restrictions in the economic foundations that support the ability of a regional industry value chain to compete in global markets (Anderson, 1994). Such efforts will be directed towards sustaining the economic base of the region.
An economic region can attain substantial influence in its efforts to accomplish its goals by defining policies that speak to a variety of objectives within integrated initiatives such as cluster initiatives (Porter, 2003). Again, central to these strategies are the existing industry clusters.
Integral to the concept of industry clustering that has been postulated by Porter (1998) is the presence of a set of core proficiencies that are spread out throughout the cluster. Once a region has acknowledged a noteworthy regional cluster, it can then develop a methodology utilising industry experts to establish the core competencies that are critical to the cluster's success (Porter 1998a). Identifying those critical core competencies that are not as resilient
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as industry executives would wish, it can then formulate programmes and policies to strengthen them (Porter, 1998a). Such policies can be developed in a way that enables the establishment of new enterprises that specialise in these areas of competence.
Concomitantly, the strategies can take advantage of opportunities to extend these core competencies into new markets through diversification of existing companies and establishment of new companies. They can also support the retention of existing companies by strengthening the region's ability to support these areas of competence (Anderson, 1994).