The Cluster Initiative Greenbook

Chapter 3
The Global Cluster Initiative Survey
Many studies about cluster initiatives have been published in recent years. They are
usually based on a single initiative, or a small group of cluster initiatives in a single
industry or a single geographic area. These studies can provide valuable insights into
how CIs operate and why they succeed or fail. However, until now no attempt has
been made to make a more comprehensive study of a large number of CIs with a
global scope and across a wide range of industries.
This Greenbook is an attempt to do such a comprehensive study. The purpose is to
describe how CIs operate today and to explore possible success factors. To do this, a
global survey of CIs has been carried out, the first of its kind.
Although a large number of CIs have responded to the survey, they represent just a
small part of all the CIs in the world. Nevertheless, we believe this extensive collection
of data gives us a good possibility to test hypotheses and draw conclusions.
This chapter is the descriptive part, which tries to paint a comprehensive picture of
CIs – how they are set up, who finances them, how they operate, how they perform,
and other aspects. The next two chapters present the analysis of how these aspects
relate to each other. Chapter 4 deals with direct effects on performance and Chapter 5
with more complex patterns.
About the 2003 survey
This section presents a brief overview of the GCIS 2003. For further details, see the
box “How the survey was carried out.”
Participation
The following definition of CIs was established.
If you would like to participate in
future editions of the Global
Cluster Initiative Survey, please
register at the survey website:
www.cluster-research.org/GCIS
Definition of cluster initiatives
Cluster initiative: an organised effort to increase the growth and competitiveness
of a cluster within a region, involving cluster firms, government and/or the research
community.
Using this definition we identified 509 cluster initiatives across the world and sent
invitations to participate in an on-line survey. 233 completed and 5 mostly completed
replies were received.
The survey
The on-line survey included 30 questions and 169 sub-questions. Most questions were
in the form of a statement and respondents were asked to grade the extent to which
they agreed, measured on a seven-degree Likert scale, ranging from “disagree completely”
to “agree completely.” (See Figure 19 on next page.)
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