Links & Resources
This area gathers a wide range of documents, presentations, articles and links to cluster portals and relevant organizations active in cluster and regional development.
We hope that these suggestions will further your knowledge on clusters!
Contact TCI Secretariat if you want to send us a contribution.
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Cluster Management Excellence. Volume II: Sustainability and Effectiveness of Clusters and Networks (Cluster related links)
Initiating of cluster initiatives is easy compared to make them sustainable. It sounds a little bit provocative, but in reality, it is a big challenge for cluster managers and cluster actors to run cluster initiatives in a highly professional and sustainable way, especially when funding is not provided or continuously reduced. Consequently, cluster management excellence becomes more and more important world-wide. This publication deals with the issue how to increase professionalization of cluster services and cluster managements as well as how to set up specific measures to make cluster management more sustainable. Based on real practical examples of successful cluster managers a lot of insight views are provided that can easily be transferred into daily business of interested cluster managers. This publication is the second volume of our Cluster Management Excellence Triology.
The Kompetenznetze Deutschland Initiative Publication -
Uncovering excellence in cluster management (On Cluster Initiatives)
The objective of this report is to support cluster managers, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders in crystallising the notion of cluster management excellence as a process rather than an output. In order to achieve cluster excellence, focusing on cluster management alone is not enough, and the notion of cluster governance has to be brought onto the stage. The key pillars of excellence in cluster management include a regular review of both cluster objectives and the objectives of the cluster organisation,‘trying out’ various types of actions and learning from the results of those actions, constant monitoring and regular evaluation, adaptive performance measurement systems, and active engagement of cluster stakeholders at all stages of the management cycle. There is no golden recipe for excellence in cluster management. Not only do different clusters require different approaches, but even the same cluster is likely to require new approaches as it passes through various stages of its development, or in response to various external drivers.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Publication -
Making Sense of Clusters (Reports and Studies)
This discussion paper reviews the academic literature on industry clusters. It explains what clusters are, why they matter for regional economic development policy, and how to use cluster analysis as a guide to policy and practice. Much of the research on clusters has been preoccupied with debating the precise definition of a cluster, applying a single methodology, or examining whether clusters are good or bad for various measures of regional economic success. Researchers should accept that clusters are an umbrella concept, not a precisely defined term, and that clusters vary from place to place and across industries. Cluster research should evolve to become a creative and informative mixture of art and science that helps academics, policymakers, and citizens better understand the varied workings of their regional economies.
Author: Joseph Cortright, Impresa, Inc. Portland, USA -
How Regional Industry Clusters Can Add Jobs, Bolster Entrepreneurship, and Spark Innovation (Reports and Studies)
Properly designed, cluster strategies are a low-cost way to stimulate innovation, new-firm start-ups, and job creation by helping to link and align the many factors that influence firm and regional growth. Additionally, thinking in terms of clusters gives governors a way to articulate a positive vision of economic prosperity, engage broad groups of stakeholders in driving recovery, boost the export intensity of the economy, and bring focus and discipline to myriad state investments and policies.
Authors: Mark Muro and Kenan Fikri -
Mapping the Nation's Regional Innovation Clusters (Reports and Studies)
13.01.2011 The EDA funded Cluster Mapping Project aims to provide policymakers and development practitioners across America with rich data and tools for understanding industry clusters in every region of the country. The Cluster Mapping Project has assembled a detailed picture of the location and performance of industries in the United States, with a special focus on the linkages or externalities across industries that give rise to clusters.
Author: Christian Ketels, Harvard Business School -
Industrial Clusters and Micro and Small Enterprises in Africa: From Survival to Growth (Reports and Studies)
In Africa, there are stark performance gaps between domestically owned enterprises and foreign-owned enterprises in terms of sales performance, productivity, and ability to reach distant markets. Among others, size appears to be a dominant factor in explaining the gap. Against this background, the study analyzes how naturally formed industrial clusters—concentrations of enterprises engaged in same or closely related industrial activities in specific locations—could potentially mitigate constraints Africa’s micro and small enterprises face and enhance their business performance.
World Bank Publications -
The Competitiveness Roadmap: 2009-2050 (On Competitiveness)
The “Competitiveness Roadmap” is an attempt to describe and assess the main issues that will affect the world competitiveness landscape over the next four decades. Issues are shown along two axes - degree of impact and timescale - to provide a clear “mental map” of the environment in which nations and companies will operate. This is a subjective assessment which aims to bring some coherence to the multitude of issues that are said to be having an impact – sooner or later – on the competitiveness landscape
Author: Stéphane Garelli -
European Cluster Policy Group - Final recommendations (Cluster Policy)
The European Cluster Policy Group (ECPG) was formed by a Commission Decision in 2008 as one important element in the quest to strengthen the quality of cluster programmes across Europe. The group of twenty independent experts was tasked “to improve the Commission’s and Member States’ understanding of modern policy responses in support of cluster excellence” and “make recommendations on how to better design cluster policies in the Community”. This final report puts these suggestions and the discussion that led to them into a broader context.
ECPG Final Report -
Cluster Management Excellence (Reports and Studies)
In the last few years numerous, very good services have been realized in networks and clusters. Analyses of the different services clearly show: However heterogeneous the individual approaches may be when clusters characteristics are considered, there are still common super ordinate service categories in substance, which are mainly translated into supportive measures. That means, many networks and clusters face similar problems or needs. But in view of a great variety of aspects, such as a lack of creative ideas or possible solutions, scarce financial or human resources and not clearly defined demands, there are frequently difficulties in translating identifiable needs into suitable need-oriented services. Therefore, the aim of this publication is to present, on the one hand, the theoretical foundations of the very complex subject of “network services” in a practical way and, on the other hand, introduce ideas for successful and innovative problem solutions, services or possibilities of support. The publication points out network services in the form of “best practice examples” developed by all networks and their offices, which are among the most efficient networks of Germany.
Cluster Management Excellence -
Top industry clusters in 2040 revealed (Reports and Studies)
This report highlights the geographical locations that will host the largest clusters in five industries: pharmaceuticals, automobile, assembly, asset management, filmed entertainment, and tertiary education. The expected top locations in 2025 and 2040 are disclosed for each of these sectors highlighting key trends for the industry and how the new economic order will influence future geographical winners. The old economic order is shifting. As the global economy recovers some emerging markets are likely to grow faster than traditional economic powers. At the industry level, these shifts are even more apparent with accelerating capital flows, fundamental demographic changes, and the rise of state capitalism reshaping the world map for many sectors.
Top industry clusters in 2040 revealed
