Peter Eklund, Head, Economic Development and Business Intelligence, Province of Södermanland petek @ d.lst.se
Börje Haag, Cluster Coordinator, Biotechvalley.nu
Daniel Hallencreutz, Intersecta AB

Facilitator:

Lynn Mytelka, Director, United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH), USA Mytelka @ INTECH.UNU.EDU

Conclusions:

Raul Malmstein, Deputy Secretary General, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Estonia (to be confirmed)

Key issues: Drawing on practical lessons from regional cluster-building in the Swedish region Sörmland, particularly within the biotechnology sector, the workshop sets out to discuss factors proven to be of significant importance in order to get a dynamic cluster. These are the need to acknowledge that:
1) cluster projects are historically embedded in space and time;
2) business intelligence must accompany cluster mappings;
3) cluster brand and shared visions are important;
4) cluster drivers and civic entrepreneurs are crucial but they are not islands, they need good governance structures,
5) competence/knowledge support is a key determinant but is more than higher education and R&D;
6) the public sector plays a wider role than financier, and
7) clusters should be extrovert, not navel-gazing. To some extent, cluster initiatives driven by the public sector has tended to put too much stress on analysis and mapping. The Sörmland case raises questions on why it is important to try to break away from the force of habit. In this context the workshop particularly want to discuss issues related to how policy coherence can be achieved and how actors (public and private) can initiate and change management processes in clusters. Paradoxes that needs to be taken into consideration in this context are: A) the drive for autonomous processes vs. the need for policy coherence; B) acceptance of uncertainty vs. the need for control, c) planning and rationality vs. intuition and creativity; C) the interest of the firms vs. the interest of the public; D) the loyalty towards firms vs. loyalty towards the cluster; E) proven systems/structures versus the need for incremental innovation; F) secured, planned process vs. serendipities; G) the need for quick fixes vs. long term strategic orientation, and, finally, H) the desired state vs. the actual state.
Executive summary PDF