ABSTRACT
Processes of clustering and initiatives to promote the creation of clusters have become an important issue in regional business development policy in recent years. The concepts can be traced back to the classical notion of industrial districts, and the embedded mechanisms and features causing superior economic performance ascribed to firms within the districts. In the last decades the concept has become increasingly popular in regional and local business development policy. This chapter provides a comparative assessment of cluster initiatives in two medium sized city regions in very different economic settings, Sønderborg in the southern part of Denmark, located close to the German border, and Eau Claire in Western Wisconsin, USA, as well as identifying the impact of cluster promoting policies in these settings.
The aim of the analysis is to identify policy instruments and to compare the implementation and economic impacts of cluster promoting policies in a different economic and structural setting. Despite differences, both regions also have similarities, facing severe challenges from economic restructuring with loss of traditional blue colour employment and the transformation of the local economy toward service and IT-based activities. The central research question is to identify cluster related instruments, to compare the policy set-up in the two areas, and analyse how they interfere with the general economic development concepts of the country, state or region.
The findings show that, on account of different traditions and economic institutions, significant differences in the policies are identified. One of the major aspects appears to be the level of commitment to a cluster development policy in both regions (Southern Denmark and West Central Wisconsin). In Denmark 261this approach has brought together more entities resulting in a more comprehensive and better funded policy effort. In Wisconsin, the cluster policy to economic development is very recent, has been poorly structured and is highly sensitive to political changes. With regard to the used instruments and measures, similarities are present, i.e. the focus on knowledge and innovation, often conducted within a ‘triple helix’ framework. Macro level impacts have, due to the limited financial resources, only been visible in certain local areas.
