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1. Introduction
In modern global market, because of globalization and rapid technology changes, firms need to compete not only with national rivals but also with international firms (Ickis, 2006; Brenes et al., 2011). This immense global pressure continues to alter the environment in which firms operate, the traditional industrial strategies are becoming less effective. For survival, companies have to build “core competencies” via implementing quality practices, cost effective competitive pricing policy, internet marketing, sound strategy basis, product innovation and predicting buyer behavior for high customer satisfaction (Lynch and Ariely, 2000; Chobanyan and Leigh, 2006; Gupta and Nanda, 2015). Whenever the strategies used are successful in leveraging the firm’s performance, the firm is likely to gain an advantage over its competitors in the marketplace and thus earn a higher return. The strategies build on particular resources that are rare, valuable and difficult to imitate are proving more efficient than others and are being considered as main drivers of creating sustainable competitive advantages. In this unpredictable business environment, a variation in regional economic performance has become a common feature in nation’s economy both in developing as well as developed countries. Numerous studies have been conducted to explain why some regions achieve significantly higher growth rate than others (Delgado et al., 2014; Singla and Jain, 2014; Chandamoyo and Dumbu, 2012; Baptista and Preto, 2010). Researchers from various countries focused considerable attention on regions, clusters and industrials sectors which appear to have achieved comparatively strong economic performance, for instance, Combes (2000) in France, Oz (2002) in Turkey, Porter and Emmons (2003); Bresnahan and Gambardella (2004); Ellison et al. (2010) in USA, Kao et al. (2008) in Southeast Asian countries, Lattuch et al. (2013); Bonte (2004) in Germany, with particular emphasis on one or very few dimensions (namely, start-up resources, potential for innovation, technological upgradation, knowledge management and the composition of economic activities etc.) of performance at a time.
According to Ketels (2006), in the presence of highly competitive related and supporting industries, growth increases at a level of economic activity (activity that creates value by providing products and services at a price above their cost of production). Firm’s competitive advantage, economic performance and prosperity arises through interdependencies across complementary activities; it includes availability of initial resources, sharing...