The rise of clusters of innovative industries in Belgium during the industrial epoch

Abstract This article presents the notion of `cluster of innovative industries' in order to analyse long-term techno-industrial change in Belgium. This notion accounts for strong and dynamic techno-economic linkages, interdependencies and complementarities that may occur between a set of industries for a particular period of time. Each cluster has its roots in a set of closely related major innovations that link particular industries to each other through a dynamic process of transfer and feedback of technology via various mechanisms. We identified a number of 12 `clusters of innovative industries' that have emerged in the leading industrial countries since the first Industrial Revolution. We also present empirical outcomes concerning the extent to which Belgium participated in these clusters during the industrial epoch. The Belgian case shows that lagging countries are incapable of developing fully these clusters. Major components of the clusters were either missing or underdeveloped, or they emerged with a considerable delay, due to first-mover advantages, among other reasons.

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