Clusters and competitiveness - PRO INNO Europe

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4.1 Introduction Following the impact made by Michael Porter’s works, the regional policy of an increasing number of countries attaches a growing importance to what is loosely called cluster policy, which is gradually shaping a new system of industrial policy (OECD, 2001). Nonetheless, cluster policy not only lacks precise rules, but actions carried out in its name are also highly diverse (Hernández, Fontrodona and Pezzi, 2005).This is surely why the European Commission, interested in its usefulness for promoting regional economic development, launched a project on clusters and company networks in 2002 (European Commission, 2003), in which a group of experts in the field drew up a final report establishing that cluster policy should foster dialogue and cooperation among companies, and between these and institutions, technology centres and training services, so limiting the public sector to acting as a catalyst. This recommendation came after the European Commission, on the basis of the study of cluster policies carried out in 17 European countries (European Commission, 2002), recognised that these initiatives, with different actions and terminologies, had as their main objective the reinforcement of cooperation between companies and working in networks, and shared a whole series of key characteristics, such as the following: • They are regarded as a tool for promoting economic development and structural change. • They emphasise the link between companies and regional technological infrastructures. • They highlight the role of public organisations as intermediaries in the promotion of company networks and joint projects. • They underline the need to improve companies’ capacity for innovation and their management through an interactive relationship with their environment. In fact, this set of characteristics is very similar to the main elements of regional industrial policy based on the relevance of the Marshallian industrial district (Costa, 2004): • Promotion of external economies. • Territorial and productive delimitation • Promotionandimprovementofrelationsamongcompanies,alongwiththeestablishment of community structures to support industrial activity • Coordination between public and private sectors. 44 CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS: THE CASE OF CATALONIA (1993-2010)
The truth is that, with many particularities, but also with many common characteristics, cluster policy has undergone a veritable boom in recent years 3 . This is due to the fact that economies structured in clusters increase productivity because they stimulate contextual knowledge, facilitate the presence of specialised suppliers, and favour the creation of specialised infrastructures. They also improve innovation capacity since they enable a rapid understanding of clients’ needs, and recognition of business opportunities, or facilitate information flow and therefore the diffusion of technology, and they stimulate the creation of new companies, since an improved information flow and the perception of business opportunities increases business dynamism and the chances of creating spin-offs (Porter, 2003). However, for policy makers in general, and for those responsible for the industrial policy of the Catalan government in particular, clusters are important because they are a reality in the territory which allows for economies of scale when analysing a business and its problems, and also because they enable actions to be taken with a homogeneous group of companies with a view to facilitating their strategic change. Within this conceptual framework therefore, and going beyond academic definitions, the Catalan government’s cluster policy has been structured, from its beginning at the start of the 1990s, around four elements: competitiveness, business, company strategy and, of course, clusters. Figure 3. Basic concepts of the Catalan government’s cluster policy COMPANY STRATEGY • Strategy for success or future in this business Source: Ramis, Lluís (unpublished document). COMPETITIVENESS • Ultimate goal CLUSTER • Tool for understanding a business and designing and implementing policies to strengthen competitiveness BUSINESS • Segmenting by business and not by statistical sector This policy has always viewed the cluster asthe unitof reference usedto reinforce companies’ competitiveness at regional level through the implementation of initiatives launched by the administration, combining analytical and procedural tools to foster strategic change. For the purposes of this presentation, its evolution may be divided into two stages, 1993- 2004 and 2004-2009. 3 According to the European Cluster Observatory (http://www.clusterobservatory.eu), in 2008 there were more than 2,000 initiatives to reinforce competitiveness underway in Europe alone that could be brought together under cluster policy. THE CATALAN GOVERNMENT’S CLUSTER POLICY 45
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 28 and 29: Cluster policy, understood as a ser
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 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
Page 78 and 79: 2. Specialised firms: normally fore
Page 80 and 81: Figure 22. Main strategic challenge
Page 82 and 83: Main actions carried out in the kit
Page 84 and 85: On the one hand, this change in men
Page 86 and 87: In 2009 the Catalan government’s
Page 88 and 89: As in most regions or countries tha
Page 90 and 91: countries in the 1990s. However, th
Page 92 and 93: For this reason, one of the most re
Page 94 and 95: 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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