Clusters and competitiveness - PRO INNO Europe

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Cluster policy, understood as a series of industrial and business policy initiatives aimed at improving the competitive efficiency of a group of companies, and their continuous adaptation to the challenges of the global market, began to be developed by the Catalan government in 1993. Shortly before, in 1990, Michael Porter had published The Competitive Advantage of Nations, the book which paved the way for the use of clusters as a public policy tool for boosting competitiveness. Catalonia was therefore one of the first regions in the world to use a methodology aimed at boosting competitiveness in a geographical area by improving the strategy and working environment of its companies, and this effort was recognised by Michael Porter himself in his work On Competition (1998). However, much has happened since 1993. Cluster policy has achieved undeniable prominence everywhere: the European Cluster Observatory states that, worldwide, there are currently over 2,000 competitiveness reinforcement initiatives based on the use of this industrial and business policy tool, and the European Commission is defining the basic guidelines of a cluster policy within the European Union (European Commission, 2009). It therefore seems reasonable to reflect on our experience and raise the question of future challenges and opportunities. Cluster policies should be refocused with a wider perspective centred on productivity growth and international relations, given the progressive international fragmentation of the value chain and the growing importance of an improvement in productivity within a context where industrial activities (manufacturing and production services) are central to economic growth and competitiveness (Ghemawat, P., Vives, X., 2009). This is the purpose of this book in the case of Catalonia, taking into account the abovementioned context. Basically, the book reviews the cluster policy developed by the Catalan government, offers a critical analysis of its results, and proposes a framework of reference for the future. Chapter 2 makes some brief references to the theoretical context of the clusters and their policy within the economy and other social sciences. Chapter 3 explains the first steps in cluster policy in Catalonia as from the appearance of Porter’s book in 1990, while chapter 4 offers a detailed historical review of the policy, defining two basic periods - 1993-2004 and 2004-2009, and explaining the methodological criteria and some specific examples. Chapter 5 analyses the principal causes leading to the need for a change in the 26 CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS: THE CASE OF CATALONIA (1993-2010)
approach to cluster policy, based on a critical review of the preceding experience. A new proposal for a cluster policy for today is made in chapter 6, while chapter 7 offers some final reflections, of necessity provisional. The book closes with some annexes containing the reflections of some international experts in the field, highly renowned both in academic circles and among policy makers: Marco Bellandi and Annalisa Caloffi (Università degli Studi di Firenze), Christian Ketels (Harvard Business School) and Antoni Subirà (Institut d’Estudis Superiors de l’Empresa (IESE Business School)). INTRODUCTION: JUSTIFICATION AND PURPOSE OF THE WORK 27
Page 1: Clusters and competitiveness: the c
Page 4 and 5: Hernández Gascón, Joan Miquel Clu
Page 7: Acknowledgements Verymanypeople,com
Page 10 and 11: Index of tables Table 1. The local
Page 12 and 13: Figure 31. Textile distribution tre
Page 14 and 15: The term “cluster” is used to r
Page 16 and 17: The last effect of the new focus, a
Page 18 and 19: Figure 11. Map of the local industr
Page 20 and 21: Figure 14. Joint work scheme of the
Page 22 and 23: Figure 16. Main competitiveness rei
Page 24 and 25: Figure 33. The change in project de
Page 26 and 27: Catalonia was a pioneer in the use
Page 31 and 32: A little theory: Marshall, Becattin
Page 33 and 34: However, the proliferation of regio
Page 35 and 36: the diversity of clusters themselve
Page 37 and 38: The first step: the competitive adv
Page 39 and 40: political environment which conditi
Page 41 and 42: Figure 2. The clusters of the futur
Page 43: 1. To invest in lasting long-term c
Page 46 and 47: 4.1 Introduction Following the impa
Page 48 and 49: 4.2 First stage: 1993-2004 4.2.1 Me
Page 50 and 51: This working method led the members
Page 52 and 53: 4.2.2 A case study: the leather tan
Page 54 and 55: added to this industry’s strong d
Page 56 and 57: Figure 9. Comparison between the pr
Page 58 and 59: Within this framework, Igualada’s
Page 60 and 61: 4.2.3 Some lessons More than twenty
Page 62 and 63: Finally, and with the aim of transm
Page 64 and 65: the initial stage was selected, eli
Page 66 and 67: Table 1. The local production syste
Page 68 and 69: Table 3. Relative importance of ind
Page 70 and 71: 2. Analysis of the business and str
Page 72 and 73: It should be noted that, during the
Page 74 and 75: Table 4. Types of competitiveness r
Page 76 and 77: 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
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In terms of the positive results ac
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In 2009, after over fifteen years
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Figure 33. The change in project de
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implementing the subsequent actions
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At the same time, the Directorate G
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Cluster policy, understood as a ser
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entirely to this topic. This centre
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It hasalreadybeenmentionedthatclust
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2. Some rationale for territorial s
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Twomainreasonsjustifythispeculiarro
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of the specific interventions to re
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Sincethesenewpoliciesarestillinthei
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7. References Altobelli, C.andCarna
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Schmitz, H. (1999): “Collective e
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2. Clusters as building blocks of a
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Anumberofempiricalstudieslookatallt
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and othercompaniesthatturnintoaclus
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Thelackofagenerallyaccepteddefiniti
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aswellassupportersofclusterpolicy(a
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3.3 Implementing cluster policy to
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as a way to leverage existing agglo
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Boekholt, Patrice and Shonie McKibb
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Fritsch, Michael and Viktor Slavtch
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Porter, Michael E.: Clusters and Co
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C. Clusters: a strategic tool Anton
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The other characteristic of our pro
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they arenotrepresentedbyotherassoci
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• Gaining insight into a country
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Diez, M. A. (2001): “The Evaluati
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Joan Miquel Hernández Gascón (Val
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