Innovation in Clusters

2The Management Roots of the Cluster and Its Worldwide Dissemination

The cluster concept, as it has been applied at the local level in France, is the product of mostly management literature, the authors of which are located between academia and supranational decision-making bodies, particularly the OECD and the European Union. Through the paradigm of the knowledge economy, the promotion of American success stories that convey concepts such as “coopetition” or categories such as “knowledge workers”, these researchers provide policy makers with a theoretical and practical toolkit for the development of clusters. The concept has been transposed into public policy. Starting in the United States and promoted by international organizations such as the OECD and the European Union, the cluster is gradually being imposed into the national framework that has been promoting links between science and industry for the past 30 years.

2.1. An economic and management concept destined to become a public action mechanism

While the innovation cluster was being conceptualized by economics and management researchers, its dissemination within public policy in Western countries was achieved in a short time, virtually simultaneously.

2.1.1. Porter’s cluster: the rapid spread of success stories

The cluster concept became popular in 1990 with Harvard University (Boston) Business Strategy professor Michael Porter. In The Competitive Advantage of Nations, he defines a cluster as “a geographical concentration ...