A QUEST FOR THE INDICATORS FOR PROFITABLE AND SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES -A CASE OF PAKISTAN’S INDUSTRIAL SECTOR

Abstract

In the absence of a uniform industrial and cluster policy in developing
countries like Pakistan, a framework for the identification of viable clusters
(with a balance of profitability and Sustainability) in an economy is vital to
focus resources and policy recommendations on them. This research
identified indicators based on a literature survey that define the viability of
industrial clusters and prioritized the indicators based on experts’
recommendations through the Delphi technique with 0.5 and 4.00 cut-off
points for Level of Consensus and Weighted Average respectively. The
results reflect that involvement in child labor, environmental impacts of
firm’s operations, and corroborating with corrupt regimes were considered
the most important indicators of a firm’s viability considering the
sustainability dimension whereas all the measures of centrality and linkages
of firm with various actors were rated highly by the respondents followed by innovation and R & D dimensions which were also considered critical.
Finally, the limitations and de-limitations are discussed and policy
recommendations are made.