The policy process: clusters versus spatial networks in the Basque Country

Aranguren, Mari José; Aranguren, Miren Larrea; Navarro, Itziar

doi:10.4337/9781847200136.00020

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…The Basque Country Autonomous Community (CAPV) in Spain was one of the pioneers of regional cluster policy, applying Porter's framework from the early 1990s (Aranguren et al, 2006). The cluster policy today supports eleven priority clusters, nine of which have been supported since the 1990s, and five emerging 'pre-clusters'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Participatory Methodology for Evaluating the Cluster Policy of the Basque Country

Aragón¹,

Aranguren²,

Landart³

et al. 2012

Innovation, Global Change and Territorial Resilience

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Cluster policies have become a consolidated tool among regional policies, and albeit their growing presence there remains scepticism around the way in which the cluster concept is often treated as a policy panacea. Indeed, the evaluation of cluster policies is a critical yet under-examined issue. In Spain, the Basque Country Autonomous Community, was one of the pioneers of regional cluster policy, and in recent years various evaluations have been made of different aspects of the policy. Yet it has proved challenging to undertake a holistic evaluation in terms of the success of the policy in achieving its ultimate aim of enhancing the competitiveness of the Basque economy. This paper develops the rationale for applying a participatory evaluation approach, rooted in an action research framework, to the cluster policy of the Basque Government. Based on this rationale we present a methodology that has been designed for specific pilot application with the Basque aerospace cluster. In doing so, we aim to contribute to debate around the applicability and practical implementation of such methodologies to the evaluation of 'soft', co-operationbased regional policies. Resumen Las políticas clúster son actualmente una herramienta consolidada entre las políticas regionales y, a pesar de su creciente presencia, existe un cierto escepticismo ante la idea de considerar los cluster como la panacea de las políticas públicas. Una asignatura pendiente en este tipo de políticas es su evaluación, todavía insuficiente. En España, el País Vasco ha sido pionero en las políticas clúster regionales y recientemente se han evaluado en este contexto diversos aspectos de esta política. Sin embargo, el reto sigue siendo llevar a cabo una evaluación holística que valore si la política alcanza su principal objetivo: el fomento de la competitividad de la economía vasca a través de la cooperación. Fundamentado en un marco de investigación-acción, este artículo expone las razones para aplicar un enfoque de evaluación participativa a la política clúster del Gobierno Vasco. Con base en estas razones, se presenta una metodología diseñada para una aplicación piloto específica en la asociación clúster de la aeronáutica. De esta manera, se pretende contribuir al debate sobre la aplicabilidad y la implementación práctica de dichas metodologías en la evaluación de políticas regionales "soft", basadas en la cooperación. Laburpena Kluster politikak ongi errotutako lanabesak dira jada eskualdeko politikan, nahiz eta oraindik zalantzak ugariak izan, kluster politika arazo guztien konponbidetzat ikusten baitu askok. Kluster politiken ebaluazioa oraindik ez da nahikoa aztertu, baina funtsezkoa da, politikako gaien artean hartu duen toki nabarmen eta zabalari erreparatuz gero. Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa aitzindarietako bat izan zen kluster politiketan, eta azken urteetan politika horren hainbat alderdi ebaluatu dira. Oinarri horietatik abiatuta, beste erronka bati heldu ahal izan zaio: ebaluazio holistikoa, politikak bere azken xedea lortzerakoan izan duen arraka...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Participatory Methodology for Evaluating the Cluster Policy of the Basque Country

Aragón¹,

Aranguren²,

Landart³

et al. 2012

Innovation, Global Change and Territorial Resilience

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Knowledge generated in this context was published: Aranguren et al . (2010, 2007, 2006); Iturrioz et al . (2006); Larrea (2003); Larrea et al .…”

Section: Specific Changes: Language Work Methods and Institutional Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first were created in the late 1980s when unemployment was very high, so they had a strong initial focus on employment and training issues. Through the years, they have adopted a wider approach to development (Aranguren et al ., 2006). Now, they interact not only with individuals in training and job‐search, but with firms and knowledge institutions in innovation and competitiveness processes.…”

Section: The Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the Gap between Academic Research and Regional Development in the Basque Country

Karlsen¹,

Larrea

Wilson

et al. 2012

Euro J of Education

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The discussion in this article focuses on how the gap between academic knowledge and regional development can be bridged, creating conditions for change processes between researchers and regional agents. Institutional entrepreneurs can create regional development organisations and research organisations, but in order to fulfil regional needs it is necessary to create processes where researchers and practitioners can connect and create a mutual change process. The analysis shows how new organisations have been used to create conditions for knowledge co‐generation processes, a change in the language used and new work methods between researchers from Deusto University and Orkestra and regional actors over a period of 11 years in the Basque Country.

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“…Different types of cluster policy evaluation methods have been used in the literature, such as: policy input-oriented methods (Aranguren et al 2006), case study evaluations (FromholdEisebith and Eisebith, 2008), input-output models (Schaffer, 1999), cost-benefit analysis (Dar and Gill 1998), and econometric models (White et al 2006). An overview of the strengths and weaknesses of these cluster policy evaluation methods are briefly discussed in Schmiedeberg (2010).In the reviews she indicated that the choice of the specific evaluation method depends on the purpose of the evaluation, the availability of data, and the scope of the cluster policy viii .…”

Section: Evaluation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many countries in the world including Germany, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and France have developed specific cluster policies to improve the performance of domestic firms (Martin et al 2010). Case studies of examples such as Styria (Hartmann 2002) and Basque Country (Aranguren et al 2006) have documented the results of implemented cluster policies. Only very few of these studies, however, have extensively evaluated the effects of cluster policies on the performance of domestic firms (Martin et al 2010, Nishimura andOkamuro 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Industrial Cluster Policy on Firm Performance in Ethiopia: Evidence from the Leather Footware Cluster

Getahun

2016

SSRN Journal

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractThis paper empirically analyzes the productivity, profitability, innovation and network effects of a public policy promoting micro and small scale industrial clusters in Ethiopia. To this end, firm-level survey data was collected from randomly selected clustered leather shoe manufacturers that have directly benefited from the policy and those that do not, both before and after the cluster policy intervention. The results from econometric analysis suggests that the industrial cluster policy adversely impacts the productivity, profitability, growth, and innovation performance of the small and micro leather shoe manufacturing enterprises that moved to the government created clusters . The analysis of the transmission mechanism further reveals that the relocated cluster policy hampers the treated firms' collaborative business and knowledge network and aggravates their growth impediments which includes lack of trust, high customer and supplier search and reach cost, lack of market information, imperfect contract enforcement, delays in the supply of raw materials and the lack of skilled labor. The time lag between policy implementation and its impacts may conceal the long-term impact of the cluster policy. The overwhelming majority of the representatives of treatment group firms also continue to believe that their buisness performance will improve over time as a result of their participation in the MSE cluster development program. This study is a pioneer to quantitatively evaluate the productivity, profitability, innovation and network effect of industrial cluster policy in Ethiopia.

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The policy process: clusters versus spatial networks in the Basque Country

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

A Participatory Methodology for Evaluating the Cluster Policy of the Basque Country

A Participatory Methodology for Evaluating the Cluster Policy of the Basque Country

Bridging the Gap between Academic Research and Regional Development in the Basque Country

The Effect of Industrial Cluster Policy on Firm Performance in Ethiopia: Evidence from the Leather Footware Cluster

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