30 Examples of Business Clusters

John Spacey, February 28, 2023

A business cluster is a tendency for industries to centralize in one place. This offers economies of density whereby interrelated firms are close together. Business clusters may also be based on talent whereby the people who work in an industry found new firms in the same place. Firms may also move in to attract the talent of the competition. This can be a virtuous cycle whereby a place becomes a gigantic talent and knowledge pool such that locating in the cluster can become a competitive advantage. The following are examples of a business cluster.

Agricultural Clusters e.g. wine regions	Aviation hubs
Capital cities i.e. centralization of government institutions	College towns
Commercial districts	Creative clusters
Culinary districts	Cultural capitals & cultural quarters
Data center clusters	Entertainment districts
Fashion capitals & fashion districts	Financial capitals & financial districts
Food hubs	Gaming industry hubs
Garment districts	Industrial parks
Innovation districts	Knowledge hubs
Logistics hubs	Luxury enclaves and posh shopping areas
Manufacturing hubs	Media clusters
Niche shopping streets	Nightlife areas
Research parks	Science parks
Startup hubs	Technology parks
Theater districts	Tourist areas

Specific examples of business clusters include the Hollywood film industry in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley in San Francisco and Wall Street banking in New York.

Economies of Variety

Some business clusters are based on the economies of variety whereby similar shops locating in the same area offer customers greater selection such that shops locating outside this area may be at a significant disadvantage.

Overview: Business Clusters
Type	City Economics
Definition (1)	An area with a high concentration of businesses from a single industry.
Definition (2)	A tendency for industries to centralize in one place.
Related Concepts	City Economics » Economies Of Density »