Clusters and Factors that Form the Dimensions of Local Development

From the 1980s onwards, a more significant development occurred in places where industrial agglomerates were installed. Focusing on factors that form the dimensions of local development may reveal actions that help to define improvement strategies for the regions. This study shows how factors — by the relations/interactions between the actors participating in clusters — interfere in the local development, considering the environmental, cultural, economic, spatial, institutional, political, and social dimensions. We chose a qualitative study, multi cases and content analysis. We identified aspects of the scope of each dimension and revealed a universe of factors that interfere in the local development in the clusters. The main "catalysts" and potential disseminators of actions promoting development were the Cooperation and Collectivity factor and the institutional dimension.


Introduction
Between 1900 and 1950 (the Classical Industrial Era), companies were utterly vertical, used the mass production system, and had "disproportionate" structures. In turn, between 1960 and 1990 (the Neoclassical or Post-Fordist Industrial Era), there was a new technical and economic paradigm based on organizational frameworks supported by cooperation and interactive learning (Lastres & Cassioalto, 2003), vertical disintegration or deverticalization processes, and "leaner" production systems (Fochezatto, 2010;Olivares & Dalcol, 2010). Starting in 1970, significant changes in the industrial organization of companies -forming industrial clusters, with the strengthening of relations and higher engagement of the agents -took place Olivares & Dalcol, 2010Ribeiro, Martinelli, & Joyal, 2013). Between 1980and 1990, according to Santos, Diniz, and Barbosa (2004, it became necessary to understand the concentration of companies around a specific place and productive activity. According to Costa (2010), the Brazilian concept of Local Productive Arrangement (Arranjos Produtivos Locais -APL) was created by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) around 1990, based on two pioneering development experiences: the Italian industrial districts and the Silicon Valley, in California.
APL constitute one of the possibilities for regional development . Several studies have proposed an association between local development and the presence of clusters (Isbasoiu, 2007;Lastres & Ferraz, 1999;Oliveira & Martinelli, 2014b;Sforzi & Boix, 2015). Looking at the factors and dimensions of local development may reveal structures not yet observed and help elaborate strategies for improving and developing the cluster and its region.  elaborated a matrix with seven interrelated dimensions (environmental, cultural, economic, spatial, institutional, political, and social) in the APL that have not been jointly contemplated in studies in this area.
Concerning social development and clusters, these dimensions refer to interdisciplinary aspects of the production (and reproduction) territory of social and practical relationships. They are formed by factors representing the experiences and actions of individuals participating in a cluster's region.
In this context, we aimed to study the relationships and interactions between the actors participating in the clusters/APL -how the factors interfere with local development, considering the environmental, cultural, economic, spatial, institutional, political, and social dimensions. The specific goals were: (a) to identify the dimensions and the factors present in clusters/APL, considering their potential interference with local development; and (b) to allocate the factors according to the dimensions of local development.
Identifying factors and dimensions was an initial effort in line with the understanding of local development and essential to reveal the direct (i.e., immediate) interferences and show both the dimensions generating the factors and the first actions that may influence said dimensions.
The article is structured as follows: this introduction; the literature review; the methodological aspects; discussion, analyses and results; lastly, final remarks and references.

Systemic review: industrial clusters and local development
Initially, we carried out a search in the Scopus database (Editora Campus/Elsevier) and in the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters Scientific) to locate studies between 2010 and 2015 and learn about the current scenario of publications in this area, discussing one or more of the seven dimensions of local development in clusters. Web of Science is the oldest Social Sciences database (Benítez Hurtado, Carpes, Inomata, & Rados, 2012) and can be considered the most important bibliometric analysis source (Van Leeuwen, 2006). It includes four collections in this area: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI); Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI); and Conference Proceedings Citation Index -Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH) (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, n. d.). The Scopus database indexes peer-reviewed academic titles and is the most extensive database for bibliographic references of scientific literature in the world (Elsevier, c2021).
We searched for complete studies without language restrictions 1 . After reading the abstracts (if sufficient) and the complete texts (if further clarification was required), we found nine studies: spatial dimension (four "clusters" and "spatial dimension"; one "industrial districts" and "spatial dimension"); social dimension (two "clusters" and "social dimension" and one "arranjo produtivo local" and "dimensão social"); environmental dimension (one "arranjo produtivo local" and "dimensão ambiental"); cultural, political, economic, and institutional dimensions (no studies).
In total, we selected five studies (two in the Scopus database and seven in the Web of Science database, with repetition of studies in the different databases) that contemplated dimensions of local development: Alvarenga, Matos, Machado, Sobreira, and Matos (2013), Belso-Martinez (2010), Carrol and Zeller (2012), Doloreux, Shearmur, and Guillaume (2015), and Herrerias and Ordoñez (2012). Nevertheless, these studies did not consider integrating the dimensional framework (complex, multi, and interdisciplinary) of territory construction, the relationships between the agents, and their interrelationships with space and dimensions.

Local productive arrangements: creation, construction of the concept, and formative factors
The spatial concentration of economic activities happens due to two opposing forces: agglomeration (originating from the triad of Marshallian foreign economies -specialized/skilled labor; the presence of knowledge spillovers; and the provision of services and specialized raw materials) (Costa, 2010;Fochezatto, 2010;Marshall, 1996); and dispersion (immobility of labor, high transportation costs, and external effects of the environment) (Bekele & Jackson, 2006;Krugman & Venables, 1996). In the view of Becattini's Industrial Districts, the organizations are agents of production; knowledge is the driver of production; and the "homines novi" are the agents of entrepreneurship. Together, they form a mixture of feelings of belonging, which unites individuals in their common interest and the historical, social, and cultural nature (Fochezatto, 2010;Sforzi & Boix, 2015).
In this study, we chose the term APL created by Cassiolato, Lastres, and Stallivieri (2008) to refer to economic, political, and social agents who share the same territory and have (initial) ties with the agents connected to the main activity: public/private organizations; organizations that produce/provide goods and/or services; organizations working with human resource qualification; institutions associated with research, development, and engineering; and those focusing on politics, financing and incentive actions. According to Porter (2000), the term cluster has been used internationally.
For externalities and development to exist, there must be interrelations (Carrol & Zeller, 2012;, trust and the creation of territorial ties (Lastres & Cassiolato, 2003). The synergy takes place as long as cooperation and collective consciousness are the basis of the generation of results (Alvarenga et al., 2013).
According to Di Giacinto, Gomellini, Micucci, and Pagnini (2013), the local community fosters productive clusters by coexisting and sharing cultural and ethical values.  affirm that cooperation relies on social and institutional relationships, with local social capital being a key component. According to Lastres and Cassiolato (2003), based on the ideas of Bourdieu (1986Bourdieu ( , 1998, Coleman (1988) and Putnam (2006), recognized due to the importance of social relationships for understanding and intervening in economic activities.
The bonds of friendship and cooperative trust facilitate the flows of information. Moreover, governance plays an essential stimulating role and is a fundamental manager of democratic practices (Casanueva et al., 2013;Cassiolato & Szapiro, 2003). The wide range of support institutions, both public and private, can better explore and transfer information, knowledge, and opportunities, continuously refined by internal reactions, proximity, and the intensity of the exchanges (Molina-Morales & Martinez-Cháter, 2016). According to Carrol and Zeller (2012), Herrerias and Ordoñez (2012), Lastres and Cassiolato (2003), and Marini, Silva, Nascimento, and Strauhs (2012), it is necessary to include the State in order to support local governance.
Studies on APL present aspects, characteristics, or variables that compose their structure and are important for stimulating and reinforcing practices, building factors associated with local development (Table 1). Table 1 Factors present in corporate clusters mentioned in the literature

Strengthening of financial ties
Belso-Martinez (

Historical processes (formation and development)
Bekele and Jackson (2006)

System of formal standards
Carrol and Zeller (2012)

System of informal standards
Carrol and Zeller (2012) Public or private strategies in productive clusters may provide an alternative for more significant development, contemplating dimensions beyond the financial one, considering preexisting factors in the territories of the arrangements, which also permeate the environmental, institutional, political, spatial, social, and cultural dimensions.

Local development: development from territory formation
In the last decades of the 20 th century, transformations such as globalization, technological advancement, and the restructuring of the productive system redirected the discussions about the development process (Albuquerque, 1998;Alvarenga et al., 2013;Benko, 2002;Brandão, 2007;Fochezatto, 2010;Martinelli & Joyal, 2004). According to Cardoso (2014), , and Veiga and Zatz (2008), from the end of World War II to the mid-1970s, development was not distinguishable from economic growth, as demonstrated by the way the economic system generated technical progress and productivity -the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, it was necessary to "recover the big gap . . . between GPD and poverty. Especially because the GDP does not include asset depreciation, as is the case with the degradation of ecosystems" (Veiga, 2007, p. 41); thus incorporating aspects and factors which were still absent (Cardoso, 2014).
Since then, many discussions have contemplated the idea of development with the necessary inclusion of several aspects: (formal and informal) institutions, which are the center of sociability (Abramovay, 2001); a holistic view in order to jointly look at several dimensions; sustainability and durability (eco-development/sustainable development, by Ignacy Sarchs); synchronous commitment (more urgent social needs), diachronic commitment (possibility to replicate systems for the next generation) (Montibeller, 1993); and the strengthening of democratic practices, with collective participation, freedom of choice and protection of rights (Veiga & Zatz, 2008).
Regional governance is necessary for development because trust and more collective, comprehensive and transparent actions are more present in local spheres (Veiga, 2014). The territory results from integrated construction and a productive, multidimensional cohesion, with actions generated, maintained, and transformed by an institutional framework (Brandão, 2007).
Clusters are industrial forms that generate concrete transformations in their locations; therefore, the socioeconomic process must be understood as a form of local development, under a territorial perspective Mattos, 2008;Sforzi & Boix, 2015).
The studies and theories regarding regional development evolved from the microeconomic approaches to industry localization, which considered the geographic space a simple place, focused on maximizing choice for the best location. In the 1970s, territory started being understood as resulting from social production (Brandão, 2007). The territory is a condition for development because it has specific (material and immaterial) resources belonging to the region, which are nontransferable and build local history (Iizuka, Gonçalves-Dias, & Aguerre, 2012).
In the decade of 1980, Endogenous Growth Theories emerged, which say the technological progress is endogenous . The focus is regional/local, considering a multidimensional interconnection between the elements. The new paradigm establishes that local actors/agents must structure the development themselves (Martinelli & Joyal, 2004). The Theory of Regional Development proposes the cluster/APL approach for development actions and practices in clusters (Vecchia, 2006).
Analyzing the local concepts of development, Marini e Silva (2012) mentioned that there is different terminology for the same convergence point: the need to value a variety of territorial issues, not only economic ones.
In this study, we use the term Local Development, presented by Fragoso (2005), as actions aimed at long term change, seeking to promote the quality of life of individuals in a territory by interest, articulation, and involvement of all players from different levels of society (internal and external agents), constituting a collective and educational process of transformation, focusing on change as the main characteristic for development, (re)building the future.
In the studies on local development, the understanding of sustainability gave rise to the incorporation of the social, economic, environmental, spatial, and cultural dimensions (Boisier, 2001;Ribeiro et al., 2013). Moreover, we should also consider the political and institutional dimensions to evaluate the interactions present in the territorial space  because they form the political-administrative structure, one of the main elements of the idea of territory (Boisier, 2001;. Locations are territories with formative factors and transforming factors of the dimensions, and consequently, the possibility of intervention to improve the quality of life. As mentioned earlier, the literature makes important contributions to understanding the impacts on local development, presenting elements that constitute factors that permeate the territories. According to Mattos (2008), transforming the environment to achieve development involves a (multi and inter) complex of variables: diversity and associations that must be translated into practices that consider the different dimensions. Table 2 summarizes, according to the literature review, the authors who mentioned the dimensions of local development and the main aspects encompassed by each of them. Table 2 General aspects of the dimensions of local development Protection of the environment, allowing nature to find new balance with minimum deterioration, using innovative processes to allocate renewable resources, preserving the sources of energy and natural resources. Economic prosperity through more efficient resource allocation and management and improvements in productivity and competitiveness that are compatible with the principles of local development. Considers both public and private participation and responsibility.

Spatial
Boisier (2001) Flexible geographical and spatial delimitation of the cluster composition according to issues that need addressing, avoiding the spatial concentration of groups, production activities, and knowledge, considering both rural and urban areas.

Institutional
Boisier ( Substantial reduction of social differences, both material and immaterial, permeated by criteria for social equity. Participative integration of the economic and social actors with the local institutions, legitimizing social conducts, producing a system of lasting relations that constantly incorporates society's values into the development process.
Source: Elaborated by the authors.

Methodological aspects
We used a qualitative approach of applied and descriptive nature, according to the multicase study proposed by Triviños (1987).
Regarding the scope of the research, we carried out the analysis of three APL/clusters located in the Southeast and Midwest regions of Brazil, with different focus areas, aiming to produce a broader data set. These choices also considered suggestions of state program managers for APL and researchers of the topic, formal certification of the cluster, cluster consolidation, availability for participation, potential to show the seven (integrated) dimensions, and capacity for multidimensional analysis of the local development. Moreover, the choices were made for convenience, considering the geographic proximity of the arrangements, the time established for concluding the research, and the budget available for traveling to the central city of each cluster.
We used three techniques to collect data: bibliographic and documentary research -digital files for information sharing and production reports, journal publications, fliers for qualification and marketing courses, panels, emails, and websites (Central Association of Fruit Growers of the North of Minas/Associação Central dos Fruticultores do Norte de Minas -ABANORTE; Industrial Software Pole/Polo Industrial de Software -PISO; Union of Confectionists of Taquaral/ União dos Confeccionistas de Taquaral -UNICA); semistructured interviews and elements of non-participating observation (movements, actions, and clarifications provided by the participating actors from the arrangements, inside and outside of the interviews). The interview script was elaborated based on the literature review, focusing on the factors mentioned (Table 1) and the association of these factors with the seven dimensions of local development (Table 2). The corpus of the research was defined from a Snowball sample (Vinuto, 2014), starting with key informants, the seeds, who suggested available individuals with different profiles/positions ( Table 3). The interviews were carried out between 2017, April 18th and 2017, October 23rd, with 21 interviewees and a duration of approximately 20 hours.
The data was interpreted by content analysis (Bardin, 2010). The interviews were thoroughly analyzed, and we constructed a table with two columns: The first column shows the content of each excerpt from the utterances; the second column contains the identification of factors interfering with local development (as described in the first column). The second column was later transferred to Excel, presenting all the groups of factors in alphabetical order for organizational purposes. The study was based on an inductive focus regarding the data analysis. Initially, we used the 33 factors from the literature review. Then new factors arose, following the same premise of the analysis categories (relevant for the research goal, thorough but not excessive, precise, and mutually exclusive). In the end, we found 54 factors.

Data presentation, analysis, discussion, and results
Initially, we identified the dimensions and the factors present in the APL considering the possibility of interference with local development (Table 4). All the seven dimensions were expressed either directly or indirectly by the utterances, in association with the activities and interference with the development of the regions. Several factors interfering with local development could be identified either directly or indirectly, confirming what the literature states (highlighted in Table 4) or revealed by the data collected (no highlight in Table 4).  Although all the factors presented in the literature review interfere with development, it is important to mention that this interference happens by either contributing or inhibiting, considering that a certain factor may be present or absent. Being present or absent is an inconstant condition/situation. It depends on the topic being discussed and the moment and/or group of individuals establishing a relationship with the factor at a given time. This condition was pointed out in the three clusters studied, corroborating Lastres and Cassiolato (2003) and Molina-Morales and Martinez-Cháter (2016). They demonstrated differences in the benefits of clustering, which may indicate that the involvement profile is different from one organization to another.
The Software APL did now show the following factors: Compliance with Environmental Laws; Social Competition (Inside); Social Competition (Outside); Consumer Inclusion; Political Partisanship and International Market. Regarding International Market, there are export decisions, but they are particular to the companies' strategies and not an APL factor.
In general, for the remaining factors not mentioned in the literature, all interviewees reported understanding the interference of the factors with local development. The factor Consumer Inclusion was continuously mentioned by only one of the Fruit Growing APL producers as a factor to help reach development. Another factor mentioned by the interviewees was Political Partisanship as a source of obstacles for cooperation, with significant recurrence in the Clothing Production APL.
Another important moment regarding the factors was related to the position held in Jaíba and Taquaral de Goiás. In the positions at the base level, the utterances referred to the lack of perception of development due to social transformation, mostly in the context of the interview mentioning the factors Social Projects (Donation and Development) and Directly Related to the Financial Dimension. This perception is different among interviewees who were owners or held management positions; only five interviewees strictly associated development with social transformation (two executives and managers of the Association for Formal Certification and one executive -Clothing Production APL; and one manager at ABANORTE and one producer -Fruit Growing APL). They talked about their experiences and perspectives, strictly associating local development with actions and practices that consider learning/knowledge, the collective, as an essential tool for transformation and better distribution of income, opportunities, and gains.
We also observed that the factor Gains was denominated "Mutual Gains" in the literature; however, we found that in the context analyzed in the three arrangements, these gains, although significant, were not mutual. The results show a loss regarding the income distribution, as the gains were not equitable among the participants. That was true especially for financial gains and access to quality services such as security, education, and health, which were more significant for some than for others. Table 5 shows the meaning of each of the factors not presented in the literature review in the context of local development.

Social competition (inside) and (outside)
Competition regarding social status, being better and/or performing better and/or deserving more than others, with competitive conditions expressed by social behaviors.
Inside social competition happens among individuals/groups inside the same arrangement; outside social competition happens among individuals/groups of other

Shared vision
The arrangement is understood as having a joint (collective) nature, with the belief that it is necessary to share and join efforts.

Region visibility
The region has become known by other (national and/or international) regions due to its potential for development.
Source: Elaborated by the authors.
The 54 factors form a complex universe expressed by reticulated manifestations and actions which permeate and interfere with the dimensions. In the second stage of this study, we aimed to allocate these factors into the analysis categories.
The literature indicated 33 factors and actions adjacent to the dimensions. This study did not aim to identify the factors initially affected nor to consider the dimensions for development; thus, the authors only signaled the dimensions. The factors were allocated into the dimensions best represented by them -meaning which dimension is an immediate generator of a given factor and showed immediate results after implementing factor-focused actions. We began the associations with suggestions for underlying actions and concepts of each factor, expanding our understanding from the review of the state-of-the-art literature. Regarding the 21 factors revealed strictly by the content analysis, factor-dimension allocation was carried out exclusively from the data and contexts narrated in the interviews. Table 6 shows the factor-dimension association with no differences found between arrangements. Table 6 Factor-dimension analysis Factor identified/Dimension allocated Rationale

Environmental dimension
No factors were revealed in the literature review

Compliance with Environmental Laws; Environmental Awareness; Commitment to Environmental Projects
The factor is directly associated with natural resources and the preservation of the environment.

Cultural Dimension
Regional Culture; Historical Processes (Formation and Development); System of Formal Standards; System of Informal Standards

Group Formation; Shared Vision
The factor is immediately associated with the way things work, manifestations, values, and the construction of standards of conduct, habits, a feeling of belonging, and identification (or lack of identification) with the cluster territory.

Economic Dimension
Competition; Competitiveness; Strengthening of Financial Ties; Improvements in the Areas of Administration; Similar and/or Related Sectors Consumer Inclusion; Directly Related to the Financial Dimension; Region Visibility The factor directly stimulates improvements in goods and processes, leading to better adaptation to consumer demands and satisfaction.

Spatial Dimension
Geographic and Spatial Delimitation; Geographic and Spatial Proximity The factor indicates the built-up area, the spatial and geographical limits within which the actions will be performed, and boundaries considered when organizing and coordinating the cluster's strategies. The factor is immediately better disseminated by actions that may impact the whole cluster/APL in a planned and organized way, given the multiplicative importance of the factor, as can potentially affect other factors. The institutional dimension can collectively unite, manage conflict, transmit/share information, and affect the choices, appreciation, and transformation of development practices.

Political Dimension
No factors were revealed in the literature review

Political Communication; Political Partisanship
A primary factor of political impact on the influence and/or integrated participation of the actors/agents, enabling more articulation and proposal design.

Social Dimension
Social The factor is directly associated with the cluster's social universe, based on the social relations and ties, and the construction of socially common values, responsibilities, and benefits.
Source: Elaborated by the authors.
We observed some conflicts between what is mentioned in the literature and what was revealed by the content analysis. The following factors were mentioned in the literature as being directly associated with the financial dimension: SME Composition (Lastres & Cassiolato, 2003); Cooperation, Collectivity (Dias, 2011;Olivares & Dalcol, 2010;Santos et al., 2004;Vecchia, 2006); and International Market (Dias, 2011;Lastres & Cassiolato, 2003;Santos et al., 2004) -they led to cost reductions, market expansion, growth in competitiveness and innovation in products and processes in companies. Nevertheless, according to the dataset, those factors can better relate to the institutional dimension, as demonstrated by the excerpts below.
That's the biggest difficulty [the relationships between entrepreneurs], I believe due to a lack of knowledge, this resistance, you see? . . . I rented it to three lingerie stores nearby. Then the people say: -You're crazy, opening for the competition? But I never think of people in my city as competition, you know? Because you see, one day my clients come to visit me and then buy at their stores, but [the opposite] happens too. And this misinterpreted idea makes them think I might want to take their space, aso they stop participating in the same space as me. In the end, we become competitors, I don't even know how to say this, you know? But that's it, it makes them more closed, you see? [With a more competitive view] Yes! . . . [Where there could be cooperation] cooperation, that's the word, that's it. (Clothing production APL in Taquaral de Goiás, interviewed 7, 2017. The institutional environment requires work in order to transform competitive actions into cooperative actions -Cooperation, Collectivity factor. When are we going to open the way for banana exports? Are we going to wait until bananas from Ecuador get to Janaúba, and people start consuming bananas from Ecuador? That'll be too late, won't it? So, the way to exportation is a path that must be constructed, from what I've seen and observed. (Fruit growing APL in Jaíba, interviewed 1, 2017. Discussion proposal presented by the Association about the need to develop an export strategy -International Market factor. Government support was mentioned in some studies as interfering directly with the economic dimension (Cassiolato & Szapiro 2003;Fochezatto, 2010;Schmitz, 1999;Porter, 2000) (Carrol & Zeller, 2012;Dias, 2011;Herrerias & Ordoñez, 2012;Lastres & Cassiolato, 2003;Molina-Morales & Martinez-Cháter, 2016;Santos et al., 2004). The institutional dimension is an intermediate capable of generating and interfering with local development because it can attract governmental participation and support and act as a disseminator of actions. We identified Generation of Externalities, Synergy as a factor associated with the financial (Lastres & Cassiolato, 2003;Porter, 2000) and social (Alvarenga et al., 2013) dimensions. However, the institutional dimension was determined to be a direct generator of externalities. This excerpt demonstrates the synergy produced with the support of governance. Even those who do not participate in the actions enjoy the benefits indirectly.
Well, the ones that participated actively (of the APL) I'd say are these 40 which are associated with PISO, but somehow the actions are done . . . the other . . . companies, they benefit a bit from this collective knowledge, from the concentration of labor force here in the region . . . But in a direct way they miss out on benefiting from man benefits, which are the actual actions carried out [by those who participate]. (Software APL in Ribeirão Preto, interviewed 1, 2017. Two other noteworthy factors are Gains and Innovation, which interfere with the society organized around the arrangement. The utterances complement the information from the literature about the Gains factor, which comprises the seven dimensions (Alvarenga et al., 2013;Bekele & Jackson, 2006;Fochezatto, 2010;Molina-Morales & Martinez-Cháter, 2016;Olivares & Dalcol, 2010;Sforzi & Boix, 2015); however, this factor is better categorized under the institutional dimension, since the capacity for coordination enhances and contributes to equalizing the gains. The Innovation factor had a direct economic association (Bekele & Jackson, 2006;Fochezatto, 2010;Lastres & Cassiolato, 2003;Olivares & Dalcol, 2010;Vecchia, 2006), but indicated practices focus on all dimensions, because it is necessary to innovate environmental, social, political, institutional, and territorial/spatial actions. Considering Cardoso (2014) and our data analysis, development can only be comprehensive by the immediate association of the Innovation factor to the institutional dimension, due to its ability to manage, plan, articulate, and disseminate actions on innovation in the various dimensions of development.
A lot [of the product is better than what was produced in the beginning] . . . . It's acquired knowledge, it was beneficial to production, it was beneficial to the issue of using better products, and we became aware... of those things you used to see as... wooow! [it used to be the best and now it isn't] . . . The other companies also started to see that change was necessary [obtaining new material]; otherwise it wouldn't sell. So, you know, knowledge, you see? This time it benefited both the production process and the improvement of the products. (Clothing production APL in Taquaral de Goiás, interviewed 7, 2017).
The excerpt above was mentioned in the part of the interview where we discussed how innovation is present in products and processes: directly economic, although these actions were the result of joint learning acquired through innovative transformations and actions, interaction, and sharing among those involved in the context of the experiences shared.
The Professionalism factor was allocated into the institutional dimension because, like the Innovation factor, it must demonstrate a range of interference with all dimensions, since it represents the improvement in both the professionalization of decision-making and the administrative processes and the professionalization of behaviors focused on professional and personal practices of collective coexistence, which are essential to the dimensions of local development.
After the factor-dimension analysis, it was possible to observe the dimensions that were mentioned the most: institutional (21), social (11), economic (8), and cultural (6). We found few factors related to the environmental (3), spatial (3), and political (2) dimensions.
Some observations are relevant from the research point, such as the low occurrence of mentions to factors of the political, spatial, and environmental dimensions. It is essential to give equal importance to these dimensions to focus on local development effectively. The economic dimension presented eight factors, a low number for a widely mentioned dimension in the literature. This number corroborates what other studies have discussed and concluded about the undue weight that has been given to financial aspects when understanding development (Boisier, 2001;Brandão, 2007;Diniz & Gonçalves, 2005;Fochezatto, 2010;Fragoso, 2005;Iizuka et al., 2012;Martinelli & Joyal, 2004;Mattos, 2008;Oliveira, 2013;Olivares & Dalcol, 2010;Ribeiro et al., 2013).
The institutional dimension stood out and presented the most factors, confirming what the literature presents as a fundamental agent for successful actions: the governance factor (Cassiolato & Szapiro, 2003;Cunha et al., 2012;Lastres & Cassiolato, 2003;Lübeck et al., 2012;Marchi et al., 2014;Mattos, 2008). This factor can disseminate favorable actions. It can stimulate and implement cooperation, information exchange, and learning in a coordinated way with the development goals.
Allocating each factor into a dimension leads to a distancing from the complex reality of the arrangements because each factor interferes directly and/or indirectly with all dimensions simultaneously. The factor-dimension identification was an essential initial effort to help reveal the direct and immediate interferences and show both the dimensions generating the factors and the first actions that can influence these dimensions, a coherent effort to understand local development.

Final remarks
Clusters are some of the possibilities for (public/private) strategies for the development of regions. For the first time, our study revealed 54 factors, indicating their specificities and associations with the aspects encompassed by seven dimensions. The results contribute to understanding the elements that compose each factor and dimension and how these factors interfere with these dimensions, allowing for a better elaboration of development strategies considering environmental, economic, cultural, spatial, institutional, political, and local social aspects.
In this context, we found that the factor Cooperation, Collectivity and the institutional dimension were the "catalysts" and potential disseminators of actions promoting cluster development. The Gains factor demonstrated the need for greater commitment regarding the equity of the earnings generated, so that they are mutual. The uneven distribution of access to quality services increased together with the distance from and lack of involvement with actions focused on Cooperation, Collectivity, Mutual Participation, Innovation, and Inclusion of the Local Community.
It is important to mention our methodological limitations: (a) a qualitative approach, which considers the researcher's perceptions of the respondents' point of view (mitigated by the use of more than one data source); (b) Snowball sampling, which considers the social network of "seeds" and excludes other actors; (c) lack of diversification of the profiles of the actors/agents of the Software APL in Ribeirão Preto, in which only the group of managers related to the Association were willing to participate (although they were able to provide substantial information to meet the goals proposed here); and (d) the impossibility to generalize the data without due care, since a multicase study analyzes only specific cases in depth.
Recommendations for future research: (a) understanding the results for regional development when the factors and dimensions of clusters are analyzed together; and (b) analyzing other arrangements in other regions and countries, identifying factors that compose the dimensions, identifying similarities and inconsistencies in comparison with the arrangements researched here, and from that, proposing a more consistent theoretical basis.

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