Pittsburgh's evolving steel legacy and the steel technology cluster

Abstract

Using an industry studies approach, this article provides an assessment of a cluster of product and service providers that have leveraged regional expertise in a declining industry (steel) to continue to supply technology to a global industry. The formation of Pittsburgh's steel technology cluster has depended on three main regional factors: location, labour and legacy. In particular, Pittsburgh's expertise and long tradition in metallurgy and materials science has been the ultimate source of the cluster's success and the region's resilience. The results of this research have practical and theoretical implications for regional economic development policy and its relationship to path dependence.