Moreover today we continuously face a process of internationalization, which increasingly changes the shape of the clusters and the actors' role. So we can observe different patterns of relationships inside the clusters like core-periphery patterns or hub and spoke, multi-hubs and so on. Often the result is a "spider web" of relationships which changes its shape not only from cluster to cluster but also according to different and specific key activities or economic areas, like innovation, logistics, production system, internationalization, sustainable development, education and training. In this context we could have one or more sub-clusters into the same cluster, according to the complexity of the agglomeration and the territorial concentration of the relevant functions.

Each successful cluster has to develop all of these activities but the way in which it performs them is very different, because each cluster organizes many, and partly overlapping, networks of relationships, different value chains among the actors embedded in specific activities. Accordingly, one actor could be a leader in only one or two areas (innovation and internationalization for example) and other actors could be leaders in one or more of the remaining areas. Nowadays everything changes, actors, relationships, boundary of the cluster, in a process where the competitiveness factors become increasingly dynamic and fluid and rise in their role and feed the innovation process itself. In this process of internal change the cluster has to continuously develop the competitive advantage, which in the end it arises from both the quality of networks (from which it produces "network economies") and the presence of competitive actors (advanced skills and competences) in specific areas of activities. All the actors that are localized in the cluster and their mutual relationships, reveal us which actors work together, which ones are completely separate and which organizations serve as bridges between groups of actors.

In order to stimulate more efficient and effective cluster initiatives and better understand the role of clusters "as the key building blocks of a modern innovative economy", we need analyse more in dept the cluster nets and try to map the nodes of competitiveness in the main areas of the clusters.

This requirement is as much important as very difficult to achieve and represents the actual challenge for all cluster stakeholders, particularly for policy-makers, programme managers and cluster practitioners, who need to know what degree of cohesion exists inside the cluster, how much is the density and the quality of relationships and the presence of lead actors as well. If both, local governments and cluster agencies, want to strengthen and foster the development and the competitiveness of clusters, they cannot forget that clusters exist and have success not only because of a concentration of local firms but if there is an actual and effective relationship architecture between them and with other institutions.

Alessandro Minello
alessandro.minello@unive.it
Ca' Foscari University - Venice

25 February 2010