The Cluster Initiative Greenbook

Contents
Foreword ....................................................................................................................... 5
Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................7
Executive summary ....................................................................................................9
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 15
The Greenbook project ................................................................................................................................... 15
The role of cluster initiatives in modern economic policy ...................................................................... 15
Clusters ............................................................................................................................................................... 18
The general and microeconomic business environments ......................................................................... 20
Successful clusters are linked to global markets ........................................................................................ 23
Chapter 2: The Cluster Initiative Performance Model ................................................... 25
The social, political and economic setting ................................................................................................... 25
Objectives of the CI ........................................................................................................................................ 27
The CI process .................................................................................................................................................. 29
Performance ....................................................................................................................................................... 30
Chapter 3: The Global Cluster Initiative Survey ............................................................ 31
About the 2003 survey ..................................................................................................................................... 31
Structure of the survey ................................................................................................................................... 34
Setting .................................................................................................................................................................. 35
Objectives ........................................................................................................................................................... 36
Process ................................................................................................................................................................ 39
Performance ....................................................................................................................................................... 42
Chapter 4: Characteristics of successful cluster initiatives ............................................ 45
The impact of the setting on CI performance ............................................................................................ 46
Choosing objectives .......................................................................................................................................... 47
Getting the process right ................................................................................................................................. 48
Why do CIs fail? ................................................................................................................................................ 51
Chapter 5: A closer look at four aspects of cluster initiatives ...................................... 53
How CIs evolve ................................................................................................................................................ 53
How the cluster shapes the CI ....................................................................................................................... 55
Building on experience .................................................................................................................................... 57
The well-funded CI .......................................................................................................................................... 57
Chapter 6: Cluster initiative cases ...................................................................................... 59
Scotland’s digital media and creative industries CI, the U.K. ...................................................................59
The consumer electronics cluster initiative in Catalonia, Spain ............................................................... 63
The automotive cluster initiative, AC Styria, Austria ................................................................................. 66
CITER – Emilia-Romagna, Italy .................................................................................................................... 69
Chapter 7: Cluster initiatives in a transition economy: the case of Slovenia.............. 71
Slovenia in transition ........................................................................................................................................ 71
Cluster initiatives in Slovenia .......................................................................................................................... 74
Implications for cluster initiatives in transition economies ....................................................................... 78
Chapter 8: Cluster initiatives for a new era ...................................................................... 81
Setting objectives and monitoring performance.......................................................................................... 82
Organising the CI process over time............................................................................................................. 83
Integrating cluster initiatives in a broader microeconomic policy agenda ............................................. 86
Cluster initiatives entering a new era............................................................................................................. 87
Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 89
The Cluster Initiative Greenbook • 3