Boosting innovation : the cluster approach : [results of the work of the OECD Focus Group on Clusters, based on two conferences, organised in Amsterdam (10-11 October 1997) and in Vienna (4-5 May 1998]

418 Pages·1999·3.08 MB·English

by  OECD

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OECD PROCEEDINGS
Boosting Innovation:
The Cluster Approach
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
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ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION
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FOREWORD
This book is the product of an extensive research effort, undertaken within the framework of the
OECD project on National Innovation Systems, to clarify the concept of clusters of innovative firms
and to demonstrate its usefulness for policy making. This co-operative work, led by the Netherlands,
involved the organisation of two workshops on “Cluster Analysis and Cluster-based Policy: New
Perspectives and Rationale in Innovation Policy Making”, the first in Amsterdam (October 1997) and
the second in Vienna (May 1998), bringing together researchers and policy makers from a number of
OECD countries. It contributed to the overall report on Managing National Innovation Systems
prepared by the OECD Working Group on Technology and Innovation Policy (TIP), under the aegis of
the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy.
The book is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction by Jean Guinet................................................................................................................. 7
Chapter 1. Cluster Analysis and Cluster-based Policy Making in OECD Countries: An
Introduction to the Theme
Theo J.A. Roelandt and Pim den Hertog.......................................................................9
PART I: THE METHODOLOGICAL DIMENSION
Chapter 2. Identifying Clusters of Innovative Activity: A New Approach and a Toolbox
Chris DeBresson and Xiaoping Hu...............................................................................27
Chapter 3. Norwegian Input-Output Clusters and Innovation Patterns
Johan Hauknes.............................................................................................................. 61
Chapter 4. Mapping Innovative Clusters in National Innovation Systems
Alfred Spielkamp and Katrin Vopel............................................................................... 91
PART II: THE EMPIRICAL DIMENSION
Chapter 5. Clustering as a New Growth Strategy for Regional Economies? A Discussion of
New Forms of Regional Industrial Policy in the United Kingdom
Arnoud Lagendijk and David Charles.........................................................................127
Chapter 6. The Disappearing Trick: Clusters in the Australian Economy
Jane Marceau..............................................................................................................155
Chapter 7. The Ottawa High-tech Cluster: Policy or Luck?
Roger Heath................................................................................................................175
Chapter 8. The Emerging Information and Communication Cluster in the Netherlands
Pim den Hertog and Sven Maltha...............................................................................193
Chapter 9. Innovation Processes and Knowledge Flows in the Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) Cluster in Spain
Christina Chaminade..................................................................................................219
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Chapter 10. Industry Clusters: A Methodology and Framework for Regional Development Policy
in the United States
Ed M. Bergman and Ed J. Feser.................................................................................243
Chapter 11. Cluster and Network Development Projects in Developing Countries: Lessons Learned
through the UNIDO Experience
Giovanna Ceglie, Michele Clara and Marco Dini......................................................269
Part III: THE POLICY DIMENSION
Chapter 12. Studies of Clusters as the Basis for Industrial and Technology Policy in the Danish
Economy
Ina Drejer, Frank Skov Kristensen and Keld Laursen................................................293
Chapter 13. Cluster Analysis and Cluster Policy in the Netherlands
Theo J.A. Roelandt, Pim den Hertog, Jarig van Sinderen
and Norbert van den Hove..........................................................................................315
Chapter 14. Creating a Coherent Design for Cluster Analysis and Related Policies: The Austrian
“TIP” Experience
Michael Peneder.........................................................................................................339
Chapter 15. Finnish Cluster Studies and New Industrial Policy Making
Petri Rouvinen and Pekka Ylä-Anttila.........................................................................361
Chapter 16. Public Policies to Facilitate Clusters: Background, Rationale and Policy Practices in
International Perspective
Patries Boekholt and Ben Thuriaux............................................................................381
§ § § § §
Chapter 17. Cluster Analysis and Cluster-based Policy Making: The State of the Art
Theo J.A. Roelandt and Pim den Hertog.....................................................................413
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INTRODUCTION
Innovation is not an activity of a single firm; it increasingly requires an active search involving several
firms to tap new sources of knowledge and technology and apply these in products and production
processes. The systems of innovation approach demonstrates that the competitiveness of companies is
becoming more dependent on complementary knowledge acquired from other firms and institutions.
Increasing complexity, costs and risks in innovation are enhancing the value of inter-firm networking
and collaboration in order to reduce moral hazard and transaction costs, spurring a multitude of
partnerships between firms with complementary assets, in addition to traditional market-mediated
relations (e.g. purchasing of equipment, licensing of technology). As customers, suppliers and
subcontractors, firms exchange information and engage in mutual learning. Interactions are also
intensifying between firms and a number of other institutions involved in the innovation process, such
as universities and other institutions of higher education, private and public research labs, consultancy
and technical service providers and regulatory bodies.
In many countries, clusters of innovative firms are driving growth and employment. Innovative
clusters of economic activity are becoming magnets for new technology, skilled personnel and
research investment. These groups of enterprises tend to be well established and stable, innovating
through strong backward and forward linkages with suppliers and customers. Co-operation in clusters
has increasingly become a requirement for success. Moreover, co-operation offers a direct way to
improve economic performance and reduce costs. Costs can be reduced if new knowledge and
technology can be acquired more cheaply outside the firm than if it were to be produced in house.
Co-operation also creates greater opportunities for learning (an essential requirement for productivity
improvements), enables risks and R&D costs to be shared, and facilitates flexibility. It may also help
reduce time-to-market for new products and processes.
Economic clusters emerge most often where there is a critical mass of firms allowing economies of
scale and scope, a strong science and technology base, and a culture conducive to innovation and
entrepreneurship. Clusters may also be based on factors such as natural resources or geographical
advantages. Many successful clusters have long historical roots, and the emergence of new clusters
takes time.
This publication contributes to the second phase of the OECD National Innovation Systems (NIS)
Project. The first phase of the NIS project aimed at measuring and assessing the “knowledge
distribution power” of systems of innovation at the national level. A number of country case studies
were published comparing countries’ NIS, using common indicators on knowledge flows and
interactions between the actors in the NIS (OECD, 1999, Managing National Innovation Systems). In
the second phase of the project several focus groups were formed to conduct in-depth studies of
particular aspects of the innovation system, i.e. i) institutional linkages; ii) human resource flows;
iii) innovative firm capacities and behaviour; iv) the innovation systems of developing and “catch-up”
countries; and v) industrial clusters. This book summarises the results of the work of the OECD Focus
Group on Clusters, based on two conferences, organised in Amsterdam (10-11 October 1997) and in
Vienna (4-5 May 1998), where researchers and policy makers from a number of OECD countries
presented and discussed the state of the art in cluster analysis and cluster policy making.
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The contributions included in this book provide useful lessons for policy analysts and policy makers,
some of which are highlighted below:
¤ Clusters can be interpreted as reduced-scale national innovation systems. The dynamics,
system characteristics and interdependencies of individual clusters are similar to those of
national innovation systems. With its focus on knowledge linkages and
interdependencies between actors in networks of production, the cluster approach offers
a useful alternative to the traditional sectoral approach.
¤ Clusters can be identified at various levels of analysis. Micro-level analysis focuses on
inter-firm linkages, industry- (meso-)level analysis on inter- and intra-industry linkages
in the production chain, while macro-level analysis examines how industry groups
constitute the broader economic structure. Cluster analysis can also be applied at the
regional level.
¤ The analysis of clusters indicates great diversity in innovation paths depending on the
knowledge base of the clusters concerned. This calls for differentiation in policy analysis
and policy making.
¤ Addressing systemic imperfections is increasingly seen as the key rationale for
innovation and industrial policies, including cluster-based policies. For government
policy, cluster analysis can provide insights into identifying economic strengths and
weaknesses, gaps in innovation networks, development opportunities for regions,
infrastructure needs and targets for enhanced investment in science and knowledge.
¤ Cluster initiatives originate in a trend towards new forms of governance and incentive
structures based on networks and partnerships. A main task for policy makers is to
facilitate the networking process and to create an institutional setting that favours
market-induced cluster formation.
¤ Governments can nurture the development of innovative clusters, primarily through the
provision of appropriate policy frameworks in areas such as education, finance,
competition and regulation. Also valuable are schemes to stimulate knowledge exchange,
reduce information failures and strengthen co-operation among firms. Focused R&D
schemes, innovative public procurement, investment incentives and the creation of
centres of excellence are more direct policy tools. Regional and local policies and
development programmes can also play a role in encouraging cluster formation.
In an increasing number of OECD Member and non-member countries, cluster analysis is seen as an
important analytical tool that can underpin industrial and technology policy. In this respect, cluster
analysis is a core element of the ongoing work on national innovation systems.
The OECD would like to thank all those who contributed to the success of this work. “Practice what
you preach” seems to have been the leading principle of Theo Roelandt and Pim den Hertog, the
co-ordinators of the OECD Focus Group work and the editors of this book. I would like to thank them
for having efficiently managed this “cluster” of experts and policy makers and fulfilled the ambitious
goals of the Focus Group. It is hoped that cluster analysis will not only contribute to a better
understanding of innovation, but that it will also provoke some innovation in innovation policy
making itself.
Jean Guinet
OECD Secretariat
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Chapter 1
CLUSTER ANALYSIS AND CLUSTER-BASED POLICY MAKING IN OECD
COUNTRIES: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THEME
by
Theo J.A. Roelandt
Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs
Pim den Hertog
Dialogic, Utrecht
1. Introduction
Understanding technical change and innovation is crucial for understanding the dynamics of
“knowledge-based economies” and “learning economies”. Differences in innovation performance and
the related institutional setting particular to a country, partly explain variations in economic
performance. In modern innovation theory, strategic behaviour and alliances of firms, as well as
interaction and knowledge exchange among firms, research institutes, universities and other
institutions, are at the heart of the innovation process. Innovation and the upgrading of productive
capacity is a dynamic social process that evolves most successfully in a network in which intensive
interaction takes place between those “producing” and those “purchasing and using” knowledge. As a
result, innovation researchers and innovation policy makers increasingly focus on the efficiency and
efficacy with which knowledge is generated, diffused and used, and on the dynamics of the related
networks of production and innovation. Increasingly, the notion of National Innovation Systems (NIS)
is used as a conceptual framework for discussing these types of linkages and interactions among the
numerous actors involved in the innovation process.
This book presents a perspective on the innovation systems approach, an approach that focuses on
networks of production and value chains rather than on nation states. It reviews the cluster perspective
on innovation as developed by the OECD Focus Group on Cluster Analysis and Cluster-based Policy.1
Clusters can be characterised as networks of production of strongly interdependent firms (including
specialised suppliers) linked to each other in a value-adding production chain. In some cases, clusters
also encompass strategic alliances with universities, research institutes, knowledge-intensive business
services, bridging institutions (brokers, consultants) and customers. The cluster perspective provides a
number of advantages over the traditional sectoral approach in analysing innovation and innovation
networks. These advantages are not limited to the analysis of innovation processes, but extend to the
realm of innovation policy making as well. Cluster-based policy aims at removing imperfections of
innovation systems (systemic imperfections) by facilitating the efficient functioning of these systems.
The main aim of this study is to review cluster methodologies and cluster analyses as well as cluster-
based policy initiatives in the OECD countries.
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