Agglomeration Economies in Social Economy Clusters: The Role of Networks

The social economy is an economic framework that prioritizes social value over profit, emphasizing cooperation, solidarity, and community-based solutions to the failures of neoliberal market systems. In East Asia, the development of the social economy is often government-led, raising concerns about resource dependency and the long-term sustainability of Social Economy Organizations (SEOs). This dissertation investigates how network structures and diversity within a policy-driven social innovation cluster shape SEO survival, and how agglomeration economies operate differently compared to conventional industrial clusters. The case of Seoul Innovation Park (SI Park) in South Korea provides the empirical basis for the analysis. A mixed-methods approach was employed. First, quantitative analysis using Social Network Analysis (SNA) and quadratic logistic regression was used to examine the structure and diversity of inter-organizational networks from 2015 to 2020 and test their effects on SEO survival by 2024. Sectoral diversity was found to positively influence survival, while field diversity showed a negative effect, and regional diversity followed a curvilinear pattern. Despite theoretical expectations, intermediary organizations showed no statistically significant moderating effect. Second, qualitative case study methods were used to explore how agglomeration economies manifest in social economy clusters. Unlike market-based industrial clusters, agglomeration benefits in SI Park were driven by value-based trust, collaborative infrastructure, and practice-based learning, but these were constrained by governance gaps and conceptual ambiguities surrounding "social innovation."