"Well, this is really the ‘in’ thing … in economic development," says Dr. Walden, a professor of agricultural and resource economics. "And what you do is you don’t just look at a single company or a group of companies that make a particular product. You look at an entire industry and all the companies that are interrelated in making that final product.

"For example, in the case of an auto factory you don’t just look at the assembly factory where the cars are put together. You also look at the supplier of parts, the makers of the machinery even the trucks that transport the finished vehicles," he adds. "Then what you do in economic development is you look at that particular industry and you see if there are parts of the cluster that may be missing in your local area, and that might be a good type of company to … recruit for."