Innovation and Production Ecosystems

4Competitiveness Poles

Much work has been carried out on the theme of competitiveness poles – pôles de competitivité – developed in France as a public initiative to promote the consolidation or creation of comparative advantages. The purpose of competitiveness poles is to support innovation by triggering the formation of collaborative forms including a wide variety of actors, from companies to research centers and training institutions.

In this chapter, we will focus on three main points. First, we will consider the logic underpinning the development of competitiveness poles. Next, we will examine the ways in which they differ from previous local production systems. Finally, we will highlight the performances obtained using these structures, providing a critical analysis of their overall design.

4.1. Why develop competitiveness poles?

Up to this point, we have considered innovation and production ecosystems as processes which develop and acquire legitimacy from the perspective of public policy and from that of the actors involved. We will now consider the effective policies applied by public authorities in France in the specific context of competitiveness poles, seen as a possible incarnation of these ecosystems. Note, however, that this assimilation is somewhat erroneous: competitiveness poles participate in the development of the local ecosystem (in the broadest sense of the term), applying a logic of subsidiarity in their relations with other actors in order to avoid replicating ...