Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 12.2
Cluster analysis and policy take-off stage
Cluster
dimensions
Indicators and measures
Patterns
Policy guidelines
Spatial
concentration
Geographic spread (boundary); density
of core industry firms
Geographical concentration
emerging—core industry boundary
discernible; firm density is weak
Local regional level
1. Workforce improvement
2. Maintain infrastructure
3. Business attraction and retention
4. Business assistance centers
5. Promote economic cooperation - for example, buying
and selling cooperatives
6. Recognize and communicate (information and data)
that pre- cluster conditions are emerging
Macro level (EU or National)
1. Assistance for lagging regions: workforce
development and infrastructure maintenance
2. Support for business assistance
3. Planning assistance support for regions with emerging
clusters
Notes and caveats
1. There are usually scale and scope issues in regions
with emerging clusters so may be difficult to envision a
cluster being formed out of the local economic
ecosystem
2. Take-off conditions mean that some part of the
economy is emerging as a leading industry. It is critical
to recognize this and to promote further development of
the emerging core industry at the minimum
3. Promotion of entrepreneurship should begin to heavy
focus on productive entrepreneurship and the creation of
growth companies
4. Support incubation and workshops on productive
entrepreneurship
Industry/Cluster
strength
Number of firms in core industry;
employment, income; I-O analysis;
Location Quotient (LQ)
At least one industry is growing and
has LQ 1; other core industry
indicators are growing; increasing
flows among core industry and supplier
industries (I-O Table)
Knowledge and
information
Patents; presence of university STEM
research funding; industry survey;
expert interviews; focus groups
Patents increasing; university S&E
sponsored research increasing;
knowledge intensive industries are
growing
Entrepreneurship Number of start-ups and churn rate
Start-ups increasing but modestly;
non-productive entrepreneurship still
dominate; modest increase in churn
rate
Convergence
Agreed upon strategic plan;
membership in business assns.; survey;
expert interviews; focus groups
No apparent convergence; economic
development focused on business
attraction and retention; planning not
focused on growing the dominant
industry and related emerging cluster
Networking
Density and complexity of business/
industry networks; number of foreign
firms and FDI (inbound & outbound);
social/business network analysis
Not well developed with small nodes
of firms beginning to emerge; modest
level of internal sourcing
