Magnus Lagerholm

Abstract/Key issues: Drawing from experiences at Harvard's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Claas van der Linde will appraise three cluster evaluation methods. Data-driven evaluation, used in the Cluster Mapping Project, utilizes public and proprietary datasets. Literature-driven evaluation, used in the Cluster Meta-Study, employs published and unpublished third-party literature. Survey-driven evaluation, as used in the forthcoming Cluster Competitiveness Report, draws on surveys of a multitude of cluster practitioners in participating clusters.
Claire Nauwelaers, from the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Technology and Innovation, will discuss the question of clusters evaluation from a policy perspective. Evaluation approaches and methods need to be tailored to the type of clusters considered, and to the specific aim assigned to cluster policy instruments. An overview of EU practices will assess the state of development and highlight the main challenges for clusters evaluation in the policy practice.