A Study on the Success Factors of Building Regional Contents Industry Clusters: Based on the Daegu Contents Industry

This empirical study is to explain the critical success factors for an building effective regional cluster through literature reviews and identifying its limitations, and to suggest new key factors from the views of Regional Innovation Systems and Sectoral Systems of Innovation. For building a successful cluster, the new key factors not only stress on Regional Innovation Systems that consider regional networks, the spill-over of tacit knowledge through learning by interaction, institutions which contain regional customs, norms, established practices, culture, and characteristics, but also emphasizes on heterogeneous agents who interact with each other based on Sectoral Systems of Innovation. From these factors we suggest some strategies for building an effective "Daegu Contents Industry Cluster" as follows; making characterized IT brands which are selected and concentrated based on regional and sectoral characteristics, strengthening the learning competence of tacit knowledge built in to multiple heterogeneous agent networks, establishing strong agent networks which are composed of universities, companies, institutes and governments, establishing a global outsourcing system which links local companies to agents abroad, and sharing the institutions of mind-opening cultures in order to correspond with environmental changes and link with other industrial clusters. By putting the above strategies in force, the competitive strength of the Daegu region are reinforced, while tacit knowledge spill over and the regional innovation competence are accumulated. Also the Contents cluster plays a long term core role for employment in the Daegu. Especially, "the Daegu Contents Cluster" can change the city\´s image from a small-medium manufacturing city to a new industrial city based on high technologies.