The fall and the fragmentation of national clusters: Cluster evolution in the paper and pulp industry

Abstract A common expectation in evolutionary cluster studies is that national clusters engage in competitive interactions that lead to a continuous stream of changes in global dominance. Our fuzzy-set analysis on the evolution of the paper and pulp industry demonstrates that globalization has dramatically changed this situation. National clusters have largely faded away; the value chain dominance is now held by technology suppliers who are global hubs in majority of identifiable business activities in the focal industry. Our results imply that when industrial decline is accentuated by industrial concentration in some part of the value chain the national clusters may lose their importance.