Center for Economic Development2024-04-262024-04-261997https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/4608<p>The Center for Economic Development at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, is part of the Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning Department, and is funded by the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the University of Massachusetts.</p>The purpose of this research and the dual papers is to comprehensively explore industrial clusters by looking at a number of examples, and then examine in greater detail, the Montachusetts Region in north central Massachusetts where the plastics industry has a strong base. The current weakness of the plastics industry will be identified and tackled. The shift in organizational structure from global mass producing giants to industrial clusters that focus on flexible specialization, influenced many studies throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This paper will feed from these studies and expand on the role of institutional support networks.MontachusettsMassachusettsIndustrial ClustersPlasticsInstitutional SupportEconomic PolicyEconomicsEconomic TheoryGrowth and DevelopmentIndustrial OrganizationPolicy Design, Analysis, and EvaluationRegional EconomicsUrban, Community and Regional PlanningUrban Studies and Planningarticle