In today’s Boston Globe correspondent Scott Kirsner speculates on the viability of start-up clusters created outside university-rich  Boston hub. Citing the recent start-up seeds sown in Lowell and Fall River, Kirsner notes:

The hope in Lowell is that a new incubator, dubbed M2D2, will attract medical device start-ups and spur job creation. In Fall River, a new bio-manufacturing facility slated to open in 2013 will give biotech companies a place to do early production runs of new drugs. The Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center attracted about $4.5 million in state funding, and the 22,000-square-foot bio-manufacturing center drew nearly $50 million.

All around the Commonwealth, there are efforts to support new business clusters, whether fostering marine technology start-ups near the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution or attracting clean-tech companies to a two-year-old incubator in Lynn. But looking back a few decades shows just how tough it is to create new clusters outside Greater Boston – whether bankrolled by state agencies or promoted by chambers of commerce and local entrepreneurs.

Get Kirsner’s take on the difficulties growing start-up clusters by reading his  full article here at boston.com.