Quem responde afirmativamente à questão colocada é Niels W. Ketelhöhn em artigo saído do Journal of Economic Geography (Volume 6, Número 5, pp. 679-699) que se intitula "The role of clusters as sources of dynamic externalities in the US semiconductor industry".
"This article investigates the effect of proximity to buyers and uppliers on the local output of cited patents in the US semiconductor industry. Consistent with Michael Porter's cluster theory (1990 and 1998), I find that co-location with important buyers is associated with higher levels of industry innovation. The evidence also suggests important effects of local diversity and specialization in the industry. The article also examines the evolution of the geographic concentration of the US semiconductor industry from the early 1960s to 1997, and reviews the most important sources of knowledge spillovers for the industry"
