Agents of innovation: Clusters in industry 4.0

Intelligent manufacturing has spurred an unprecedented growth of inventive activity as evidenced by the exponential growth of patent applications relevant to Industry 4.0. This growth however is driven by relatively few applicants and an apparent regional concentration of inventive activity in the form of industrial clusters. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has identified the top innovation clusters in terms of patent applications and recorded their primary characteristics. In this paper WIPO data are mined to develop new insights into industrial clusters and their impact on innovation in Industry 4.0. The major objective is to contribute towards a better understanding of industrial clusters, not just as examples of economic agglomeration but primarily as innovation agents. The findings of this paper provide valuable insights into those cluster characteristics that are conducive to world-class innovation performance and hints at the collaborative dynamics of their structure that need to change for improved efficiency.