Clusters, Cluster Policy, and Swedish Competitiveness in the Global Economy Dr. Christian Ketels, Harvard Business School and Stockholm School of Economics Expert report no. 30 to Sweden’s Globalisation Council I would like to thank the Institute for Stra- tegy and Competitiveness, the European Cluster Observatory, and the BSR InnoNet project team for the provision of the Swedish cluster data used in this report. EXPERT REPORT NUMBER 30 TO SWEDEN’S GLOBALISATION COUNCIL (C) THE GLOBALISATION COUNCIL 2009 (C) FIGURES CHRISTIAN KETELS AUTHOR Dr. Christian Ketels GRAPHIC DESIGN Nina Gergi ORIGINAL Pangea Design PHOTO Colourbox PRINT Edita, Västerås 2009 ISBN 978-91-85935-29-1 ISSN 1654-6245 ORDER The Globalisation Council PHONE 0046 8 405 10 00 E-MAIL
[email protected] www.sweden.gov.se/globalisation Preface Initially, globalisation and the technological and economic changes it encompasses were expected to reduce the importance of local economic factors and therefore also the role of clusters. In fact, the dynamics seems to suggest the opposite and economic geography is now recognized as a critical factor to understand differences in economic growth and prosperity across countries and regions. The report Clusters, Cluster Policy, and Swedish Competi- tiveness in the Global Economy seek to answer the question how cluster-based economic policy can help Sweden to succeed in global competition. The author fi nds that Sweden makes good use of cluster policies that are generally quite well designed. The operational weaknesses that have been identifi ed are not Sweden-specifi c and refl ect the more general learning process about how to organize cluster efforts most effectively worldwide.