Industry Clusters, Intermediary Activities and Sustainable Transitions: A Call for Integration of Multiple Conceptual Frameworks?

Sustainability transitions attract researchers interested in rethinking clusters as economic phenomena. Questions arise regarding how embryonic clusters identify new and valid cluster initiatives and take leadership to foster sustainable purposes for all interested parties, and gain recognition as specialist sectoral organisations at the same time. Challenging researchers interested in sustainability transitions is the ongoing need to progress knowledge about how socioeconomic conditions could change and be better understood from a multiple-level perspective, a multidisciplinary approach and/or an integration of multiple paradigms in order to address regional development concerns.This chapter presents an appreciation of industry clusters, industry districts and related sectoral organisations as intermediary organisations and examines sustainability transitions in terms of multiple contributions made by multiple actors seeking multiple outcomes within multiple industry sectors understood as dynamic systems. A conceptual model is offered where sectoral intermediary organisations may gain recognition using multiple transformation processes to identify specialist intermediary interventions as key sources of competitive advantage. To achieve sustainable competitiveness for client firms, partners, regions, sectors and or other purposes, this model suggests ways in which sectoral intermediary organisations may take leadership and seek higher-level competitiveness outcomes. As this model can be applicable to multiple geographical arenas, it may complement other more established frameworks, such as a multilevel, multi-actor and multi-scalar framework developed by Geels (Research Policy 31(8):1257–1274, 2002).