Clusters and competitiveness - PRO INNO Europe

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The other characteristic of our production system is its complexity. Our economy is not based on a natural resource like Norway. Quite the opposite: we’re a transforming and exporting economy (we’ve even been called the factory of Spain) and our exports, which are not exactly of natural resources, usually account for 30% of all Spanish exports. Their effectiveness is based on complexity and on the great entrepreneurial spirit that creates this complexity. In short, it’s a strongly clusterised economy, clusterised in the sense of Marshall, albeit avant la lettre. In other words, it has geographical concentrations of practical knowledge and business experience that makes it particularly productive. All of us for whom the Catalan industrial system was our focus of interest knew all this. And that’s why we felt the concept of cluster “a la Porter” was so appealing. If you’re immersed in an industrial environment like the one in Catalonia, when you read The Competitive Advantage of Nations, each page is exciting and you can think of local examples that fit each section of the book.The cluster concept’s appeal is that it allows you to add structure to detailed knowledge; it rationalises this and also helps you to identify and evaluate the relations between the activities carried out by the cluster’s components, which are the cause of the synergies that lead to the cluster’s effectiveness. In summary, the classic structure of statistical sectors also describes an economy, certainly, but the description that truly grasps and clarifies what those with detailed knowledge perceive as being the most important (relations, interactions, synergies, etc.) is the one based on clusters, and this description is sufficiently rich to reveal even the most subtle but at the same time crucial aspects with a view to configuring an industrial system’s productivity and therefore its competitiveness. M. Porter’s methodology and concept of cluster was adopted by the Department of Industry as the theoretical basis for analysing the Catalan production system in order to improve its effectiveness. 4. Clusters as an ecosystem In 2003, Christian Blanc, a member of the French parliament who had previously been, among many other things, President of Air France, was commissioned by the Prime Minister to produce a report, which was entitled “Pour un écosystème de la croissance”. In this report, which contains many positive references to Catalonia’s industrial policy in the 1990s, a cluster methodology approach is recommended to boost French competitiveness. I mention this report because, beyond its high intrinsic quality, it used (for the first time, as far as I know) an intelligent, enlightening analogy that actually appears in its title, namely that a cluster is analogous to an ecosystem. Obviously the components of an ecosystem (without humans) are living beings that interact, compete, generate synergies and modify their environment but they are not, individually, intelligent or aware of their activity. On theotherhand,thecomponentsofacluster(companiesandthepeopleinchargeof them)areawareoftheiractivityandcanattempttobehavemoreintelligently.But,apart fromthisimportantdifference(Iwillrefertothisinmoredetaillater),whattheanalogy highlights is that clusters are a spontaneous “natural” phenomenon and no administrative decision isrequiredtocreatethem.Theyareasystemofrelationsbasedoncompetition 152 CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS: THE CASE OF CATALONIA (1993-2010)
and the creation of synergies that develops spontaneously and has probably existed as long as economic activity itself (beyond pure survival) with more or less specialisation and trade.I’minclinedtothinkthatmanyeconomicfactsinhistorycanbesatisfactorily explained in terms of clusters and their spontaneous emergence but this is not the place to develop this idea. In myopinion,whatweshouldbearinmindisthatclustershaveexistedandproduced competitive advantages for their members since before they were baptised, academically identified or administratively defined. Secondly,weshouldalsorealisethat,aswithecosystemsperse,anyinterventioninvolves arisk.Thesesystems’internal relations are numerous and subtle and it’s almost never easy topredicttheeffectsofanyparticularaction.Convincingthemainagentsofacluster(who were generating synergies by competing with each other) that they can “strengthen” their action bycollaboratingmayturntheclusterintoacartelwhich,intheshortterm,might seem beneficial but which, later on, would become fatal for their effectiveness and ruin them. I don’t wish to take this analogy between clusters and ecosystems any further but will merely point out the most evident lessons to be learned: • Clustersaresystemsthatappearspontaneouslyandthatprosperthankstothesynergies they create. • They are more or less rigid (it depends on them). Less rigid clusters adapt better to changes in the environment and survive by changing and some evolve successfully for centuries. • Interveninginclustersisdelicateandmustbedonewithahighlysystematicandcautious approach. It’s easy to harm them by trying to help them. • Justbecauseanadministrationwishestodefineaclusterdoesnotmeanthatiteffectively exists(thatit’sreal),beyondbeingaploytogetanewspaperheadlineortogiveout grants and make a few people happy. • It’s extremely difficult to create a cluster out of nothing and there are as many examples offailureasyou’dlike.It’smuchbettertotrytotransformanexistingclusterorgetanew oneoutofanexistingcluster,likea“cutting”.Bothofthesethingsarealsoextremely difficult but are more viable than invention, pure and simple. Finally, the analogy between clusters and ecosystems ends when we consider that the constituentpartsofclustersarecompaniesrunbypeopleyoucantalkto,whileyoucan’t talktothecomponentsofanecosystem,asfarasIknow.Thishassignificantconsequences regardingtheinteractionbetweenpublicadministrationandclustersandwewillnow discuss this further. 5. Clusters and the dialogue between the industrial world and public administration Traditionally, dialogue between governments and production systems has taken place through different kinds of employer organisations; some aim to represent all companies in alocality,otherstorepresentcompaniesofacertainsize,generallysmall,whichfeel ANNEX: CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS: FLORENCE, BOSTON, BARCELONA 153
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Clusters and competitiveness: the c
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Hernández Gascón, Joan Miquel Clu
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Acknowledgements Verymanypeople,com
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Index of tables Table 1. The local
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Figure 31. Textile distribution tre
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The term “cluster” is used to r
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The last effect of the new focus, a
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Figure 11. Map of the local industr
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Figure 14. Joint work scheme of the
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Figure 16. Main competitiveness rei
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Figure 33. The change in project de
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Catalonia was a pioneer in the use
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Cluster policy, understood as a ser
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A little theory: Marshall, Becattin
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However, the proliferation of regio
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the diversity of clusters themselve
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The first step: the competitive adv
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political environment which conditi
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Figure 2. The clusters of the futur
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1. To invest in lasting long-term c
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4.1 Introduction Following the impa
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4.2 First stage: 1993-2004 4.2.1 Me
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This working method led the members
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4.2.2 A case study: the leather tan
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added to this industry’s strong d
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Figure 9. Comparison between the pr
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Within this framework, Igualada’s
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4.2.3 Some lessons More than twenty
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Finally, and with the aim of transm
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the initial stage was selected, eli
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Table 1. The local production syste
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Table 3. Relative importance of ind
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2. Analysis of the business and str
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It should be noted that, during the
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Table 4. Types of competitiveness r
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Figure 18. Basic data for the kitch
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2. Specialised firms: normally fore
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Figure 22. Main strategic challenge
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Main actions carried out in the kit
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On the one hand, this change in men
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In 2009 the Catalan government’s
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As in most regions or countries tha
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countries in the 1990s. However, th
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For this reason, one of the most re
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total in 2005 was 66.7%; in the Bas
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Table 6.Trends in value added by la
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There was a considerable amount of
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With regard to strategies, the anal
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Table 7. Professional profiles of e
Page 104 and 105: In terms of the positive results ac
Page 106 and 107: In 2009, after over fifteen years
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Page 110 and 111: implementing the subsequent actions
Page 112 and 113: At the same time, the Directorate G
Page 114 and 115: Cluster policy, understood as a ser
Page 116 and 117: entirely to this topic. This centre
Page 118 and 119: It hasalreadybeenmentionedthatclust
Page 120 and 121: 2. Some rationale for territorial s
Page 122 and 123: Twomainreasonsjustifythispeculiarro
Page 124 and 125: of the specific interventions to re
Page 126 and 127: Sincethesenewpoliciesarestillinthei
Page 128 and 129: 7. References Altobelli, C.andCarna
Page 130 and 131: Schmitz, H. (1999): “Collective e
Page 132 and 133: 2. Clusters as building blocks of a
Page 134 and 135: Anumberofempiricalstudieslookatallt
Page 136 and 137: and othercompaniesthatturnintoaclus
Page 138 and 139: Thelackofagenerallyaccepteddefiniti
Page 140 and 141: aswellassupportersofclusterpolicy(a
Page 142 and 143: 3.3 Implementing cluster policy to
Page 144 and 145: as a way to leverage existing agglo
Page 146 and 147: Boekholt, Patrice and Shonie McKibb
Page 148 and 149: Fritsch, Michael and Viktor Slavtch
Page 150 and 151: Porter, Michael E.: Clusters and Co
Page 152 and 153: C. Clusters: a strategic tool Anton
Page 156 and 157: they arenotrepresentedbyotherassoci
Page 158 and 159: • Gaining insight into a country
Page 160 and 161: Diez, M. A. (2001): “The Evaluati
Page 164: Joan Miquel Hernández Gascón (Val
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