Cluster planning and cluster strategy in regional economic development organizations.

摘要

Paper 1: The changing landscape of regional economic development practice: Findings from a survey of regional economic development organizations in US metropolitan areas.;This paper presents the results of a census and survey of such organizations, only the second of its kind and the first in over a decade. The data show that the number of such organizations continues to grow, to the point where they exist in nearly every metropolitan area over a certain size. The data also show that while their focus remains marketing and attraction efforts, the organizations engage in a wide range of activities including workforce development, local policy advocacy, business retention, and various collaborative efforts with other regional partners. It also shows that the organizations take widely varying forms involving different relationships between the public and private sector, and that their association with a particular geographic scope, and sometimes their very existence, is fluid and for some continuously negotiated.;Paper 2: Equal parts location quotients and press releases: the results of a cross-sectional survey of cluster-based regional economic development efforts in the US.;This paper, which presents the findings from a national survey of regional economic development organizations in the US, shows that the sharp distinction made by Levy and those in the cluster debate may be a poor lens through which to understand cluster policy and practice, and economic development policy more generally. The general picture that emerges from the findings is one in which cluster practice involves the application of "rational" type findings to building local relationships, and where successful local relationships are valued jointly for the increased capacity for action they create and as a powerful tool in successful marketing campaigns. This complicated mix of sales and rational activity that comprises cluster-based economic development practice shows Levy's distinction to be somewhat artificial. Cluster-based economic development practice is shown to involve significant parts reasoned decisions and unrealistic aspirations, and seems well-suited to encouraging a dual focus on firms currently in the region and those which might locate there. This last finding is likely to be one of the enduring strengths of cluster policy, in that it forces economic development organizations to take the concerns of local firms seriously while allowing a large role for traditional marketing and recruitment.;Paper 3: All Planning, No Strategy: Explaining Cluster Policy Decisions of Regional Economic Development Organizations.;Through a set of four case studies of decisions in two different regional economic development organizations, this research attempts to understand how cluster analysis and the cluster concept itself informs major decisions by the organizations. The study finds that cluster analysis and the cluster concept do inform major economic development policy decisions in important ways. However, the outputs of a traditional cluster identification analysis were never sufficient to suggest concrete policy proposals. Instead, such analysis served as the beginning of an extended, multi-year process that involved further research on specific clusters and outreach to specific cluster firms. The final decisions were affected more by information and relationships that arose during that process than by the initial analysis. The eventual decisions all embodied the cluster concept to some degree. In particular, the concept helped organizations identify sets of firms that were potential collaborators, understand connections between local forms and those in nearby regions, and prioritize limited organizational resources. In sum, the research shows that cluster-based economic development planning approaches can usefully inform economic development practice, but that analytical techniques to "identify" clusters contribute only a small part of that value. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).