Clusters and competitiveness - PRO INNO Europe

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It should be noted that, during the five years the programme has been in operation, more than 400 strategic and structural change projects have been supported, 75% of which were companies with fewer than 50 employees. Figure 15. Promotional leaflet and operational system of the New Business Opportunities programme (NON) Source: ACC1Ó. Accompaniment service "Structure follows strategy" Alfred Chandler, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Funding for STRATEGIC CHANGE Up to 75% non-refundable grant for external consultancy Market surveys. Business plan Up to 60,000 euros >Action in emerging markets >New business model >Extending product range >Own product development >Marketing technology >Brand positioning and distribution channels + Creativity, technology, funding, design, product development, market research, marketing Strategic support 70 CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS: THE CASE OF CATALONIA (1993-2010) More margin More differentiation More competitiveness More value added Funding for STRUCTURAL CHANGE Fixed assets: up to 30%, External consultancy up to 75% Training: up to 35% Product certification and official approval: up to 75% R&D: up to 60%. Up to 200,000 euros Another new feature in this new stage of the Catalan government’s cluster policy was related to the need to ensure continuity for the competitiveness reinforcement initiatives underway. To do so, it was decided to involve a number of external agents who, in addition to guaranteeing the projects would continue, could also contribute with local and sectoral knowledge to the initiatives promoted by the public administration. These agents comprised around thirty organisations already present in the locality (the so-called PIC network, the former CIDEM innovation points network) composed both of public bodies (the economic development services of some councils, etc.) and private and semi-public entities (sector associations, chambers of commerce, etc.), responsible for monitoring the projects started, a task that sometimes even included providing a cluster manager for the competitiveness reinforcement initiatives in progress. The work of the PIC network and particularly the people involved in implementing the cluster action plan was a highly important asset in this new methodological approach that not only contributed to training professionals working with clusters but also helped provide external resources to finance projects.
Diversification of competitiveness reinforcement initiatives The second main field of the operational reassessment which took place in the period 2004- 2009 consisted of a significant diversification in competitiveness reinforcement initiatives, during a gradual process in which pilot tests were carried out to improve cluster policy and incorporate innovations based on experience gained. An initial change consisted of beginning to work with groups of companies which did not fit the classic definition of a cluster, being neither from the same sector nor located in the same geographical area. In line with this new focus, clusters went from being the reference unit for defining and implementing competitiveness reinforcement initiatives to becoming a way of working with a certain group of companies with common strategic challenges. Strategy was the key factor in identifying a group of companies with a high potential for implementing competitive improvement projects. The initiatives carried out under this model focused on companies that employed successful strategies that were translated into turnover growth rates higher than the sector average and involving the reconsideration of some basic elements used up to that point. This new working methodology started in 2006 with a pilot project related to one of the most traditional industrial sectors in Catalonia: textiles-clothing. This initiative, focusing on companies with a branding and retail strategy, is covered in detail in section 5.3 of this book. With these new projects, the element of geographical concentration ceased to be so important. The most traditional geographical clusters used to contain all kinds of firms, whereas discrimination through strategy excluded some, even if belonging to the same business. With this focus, the common features among the companies were more related to sharing the same strategy and similar competitive challenges than to geographic proximity. Another step in the process of diversification of the competitiveness reinforcement initiatives came with projects related to the so-called“emergent clusters”or“potential clusters”, i.e. with the identification of groups of companies which, despite having a limited critical mass, have a high growth potential. These projects were orientated towards identifying obstacles to their development and also towards achieving an improved structuring of the cluster they belonged to. Examples of targeted sectors with these characteristics are photonics and renewable energies. A third example of the diversification of projects developed from 2004 onwards can also been seen in the “territorial innovation plans”. In this case, the starting point was the territory rather than the sector or strategy. Starting with a specific territory (often a county, but sometimes a city or metropolitan area), strategic and competitive analysis was used to draw up development plans based on projects with drawing power, carried out by key people. These projects, implemented in particular by the Cluster Promotion Area of ACC1Ó, were supported by the cooperation of local bodies such as town and county councils. THE CATALAN GOVERNMENT’S CLUSTER POLICY 71
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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
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 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 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
Page 96 and 97: Table 6.Trends in value added by la
Page 98 and 99: There was a considerable amount of
Page 100 and 101: With regard to strategies, the anal
Page 102 and 103: 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
Page 108 and 109: Figure 33. The change in project de
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
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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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