California has wine country. Hollywood has film. Silicon Valley has technology. Now, New Albany is focusing on four business clusters currently taking root in the business park that are cultivating new levels of synergy and spurring commerce.

Recently, the Village partnered with the New Albany Company to identify several Innovation Campuses within the New Albany Business Park — research and information, retail, healthcare, personal and beauty and clean energy — that represent distinct clusters of enterprise and expertise.

Researchers at Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness note that clusters of related businesses, suppliers and service providers stimulate entrepreneurship. “…industries located in regions with strong clusters (i.e. a large presence of other related industries) experience higher growth in new business formation and start-up employment. Strong clusters are also associated with the formation of new establishments of existing firms, thus influencing the location decision of multi-establishment firms. Finally, strong clusters contribute to start-up firm survival.”

The report was published in the Journal of Economic Geography. Visit www.isc.hbs.edu/econ-clusters.htm for details.