Careers, clusters and employment mobility: The influences of psychological mobility and organizational support

•Regional collaborations shape workers’ careers.•Psychological mobility and career satisfaction drive consideration of future opportunities.

Industry-specific, innovation-driven regional clusters have become a central focus for economic development and government intervention, and invite a deeper understanding of cluster participants' careers. In the extant research on careers and clusters, most studies have focused on examining employment mobility levels of the individuals involved. However, so far little research has tried to understand the psychological mechanisms and processes behind those careers. This paper aims to contribute to the research gap by investigating how individuals' participation in regional inter-firm collaborations affects their careers, and with what consequences for their employment mobility. Based on two-wave qualitative data from a French competitiveness cluster, we identify a set of psychological constructs, and offer a model depicting links that describe the career consequences of individuals' inter-firm collaborations. The paper concludes with a discussion of these findings in light of their contributions for future research.