The representatives of 23 industrial clusters are requested to provide their opinions on the length of each life cycle period. Almost 97% agree that the cluster life cycle should be classified into four stages: initial,developing,mature,and transformation. These four stages should take an average of 19.14 years (Table1). However,the development periods of each industrial sector are different, especially for the mature and transformation stages. The service cluster requires the longest life cycle length of 28 years in total. Agricultural industrial clusters need longer periods of time in the transformation stage since the members mostly apply their local wisdom to the production process, even if they invent new innovations,but they mainly rely on traditional based production and management. This reflects that there is still plenty of room for dramatic changes in various areas such as marketing,technology,and management.
Each stage and key success performance indicators are summarised as follows:
The initial stage of agglomeration and emergence should take an average of 2.90 years,and should be a process of searching for members to create the potential industrial cluster. The main activities and network linkages of members should be identified,both inside and outside the clusters. Operating systems including regulations and plans for the cluster should be developed at a later stage. Therefore ,the following key performance indicators should be included for success:
Awareness:members are interested and participate in industrial cluster activities.
Goals:there must be a specific and clear target for cooperation of cluster members.
Innovation:the clusters provide training,workshops,and the transfer of technology among members.
Knowledge:members play an important role in sharing knowledge and experience,as well as the distribution of information.
Structure:there are support activities in clusters which are driven by external organizations such as government agencies.
Trust:the trust of members is a crucial initial factor in all further industrial development processes.
The developing stage should take an average of 4.43 year. There should be strong network linkages among major players in the cluster. Cooperation with both formal and informal institutions should occur to promote cluster activities in each region. The following key performance indicators should indicate success:
Awareness: members should ensure that industrial clusters are beneficial to all.
Goals:there should be a concrete target for innovative cluster development.
Innovation:the cluster should focus on the development of innovative new products,production processes,and service.
Knowledge:members should apply technical knowledge to cluster development.
Structure:there are still some cluster support activities driven by external organisations such as government agencies. However,members play an increasingly important role in such activities.
Trust: the mutual trust and cooperation of cluster members in activities have increased.