Although there is increasing consensus that the presence of clusters enhances economic outcomes, there is little consensus on whether there is a case for policy intervention, as there can be pros (if government efforts are used to upgrade a region's competitiveness by supporting existing agglomerations) and cons (if governments attempt to create agglomeration artificially).
The article shows how the coordination between states, businesses, science and education is crucial for long-term economic development, and established a relation between these aspects and a successful cluster policy. Blurring lines between countries and forming a network society based on clusters have the potential to form a 'new economy'.
The article explored the pros and cons of the 'best practices' method used by the EC to promote an harmonised and EU-wide cluster policy. This creates issues such one size fits all approaches.
Three sets of challenges for what is now a mature policy are highlighted in this paper: the links between clusters, cluster policies and territorial strategy processes; more effective evaluation of how different policy instruments influence what happens inside clusters; and harnessing the capacity of clusters to respond to social alongside economic challenges.
Despite the popularity of the concept of "cluster of innovation" and its widespread use in policy, surprisingly little is understood regarding the nature of these interventions and their impact. Paradoxically, increasing demands for evaluation and evidence-based policy are being made at a time when increased policy complexity is challenging these very efforts towards policy learning. Cluster policy is an extreme example of this, given the lack of clear rationales, and the multidimensional and multi-instrument nature of the intervention.
The study seeks to contribute to the upcoming discussion how to provide better support schemes for cluster management organisations (and their staff). Typical questions are:
▪ What kind of support services are needed to increase the performance and impact of cluster management organisations?
▪ What approach is the most appropriate to identify the needs for such services?
▪ What are the key success factors for implementing such support services?
▪ What kind of provider should implement such services; what kind of competence should such provider possess?
"This paper outlines and deliver key triggers of a successful regional cluster policy. It first makes a broad reflection on the theory of cluster and cluster policy concepts and subsequently focuses on elaboration of an analytical scheme for policy analysis"
The overall aim of this study was to gather evidence to determine whether the effectiveness of the delivery of public innovation support in Europe for SMEs has improved since a consultation in 2009.
