Cluster Case Study

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In recent years, the efforts of clusters are subject to a strong academic and political enthusiasm. The term "cluster" is fashionable and attractive concept. Indeed, in a context of intense competition between countries and regions, there is a questioning of the competitive positioning of territories that have to adapt to a carrier opportunities and uncertainties of globalization. For keen to strengthen the potential of their regions governments, clusters bring solutions sought: company mergers and resulting benefits appear as drivers of innovation and competitiveness of regional economies.
Updated by Michael Porter, clusters are often varied forms according to local contexts and are far from being homogeneous: the reality of clusters identified or labelled as such in the world is complex and multifaceted. Methodological First, the success of the cluster concept in the absence of a clear definition makes it paradoxically increasingly blurred: everything becomes "cluster", when geographical concentration is observed activities of the same type or a network of highly innovative economic actors.
In fact, the iconic Silicon Valley, the Catalans clusters, industrial districts Italian, or German Kompetenznetze are examples often cited but cover very different realities, are part of a proper institutional framework and rely on instruments and public policies that differentiate them. The cluster concept is a generic term for various theoretical variations, depending on the intensity of networking, the size of the players and their industrial relations, their geographical extent, as evidenced by the variety of strategies clusters implemented in different countries (Italian industrial districts, local productive system or clusters in France...

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...level of economic specialization concentration of companies it becomes a cluster? What exactly are the actors (institutions, research, training), and activities to be associated with cluster? Are there any minimum thresholds, a critical mass (number of actors, related industries) for the cluster effect operates?
Qualify and quantify industrial links?
What should be their intensity? How accurately assess the "tacit knowledge" which depends on the direct confrontation, dissemination and circulation of knowledge? How companies organize themselves internally with respect to cluster? How companies can concretely combine cooperation and competition, through collaborative projects, but that should not put at risk their competitive advantage, especially for SMEs? How other cluster actors (research, training institutions) must organize themselves in relation to the cluster?

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