Steven Klepper, the recipient of the 2011 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, has spent all of his professional career looking at how innovation and the fate of large firms are so closely intertwined. His conclusions on how large firms, start-ups and clusters interact should be required reading for innovation managers and strategists everywhere.
For some 20 years, regional and city based innovation and economic development policy focused on clustering, based on Michael Porter's (1990) Competitive Advantage of Nations. However, there are still those that are doubtful about whether clusters foster economic development. In this article an alternative is proposed: the convoy model. The evidence that clusters lead to successful inter-firm regional interaction is inconclusive. Is it time for a rethink?
Are Clusters or cluster initiatives really adding any tangible value to firms? Are they obsolete? Maybe not yet, but I believe if the present policy tools and institutional frameworks are not reformed they may very well soon become so. In the following blog I would like to focus on three areas that have not been given enough importance by policy makers: focus beyond geographies, new clusters and cluster performance.
