Author： Steinle Claus Schiele Holger Mietzner Kai
Publisher： Routledge Ltd
ISSN： 1469-5944
Source： European Planning Studies, Vol.15, Iss.2, 2007-02, pp. : 235-251
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
Abstract
Clusters have gained considerable attention from regional planners and policy-makers. In order to support their decision process, a "top-down" analysis has evolved, the regional agglomeration as a whole being the object of analysis. The importance of cluster-membership for the management of individual firms and their "bottom-up" view of a cluster has attracted much less attention. This paper proposes a "dual" approach: based on an integral view of clusters a survey-tool is developed to capture the top-down perspective. It is supplemented with a bottom-up view using structured interviews in a core firm and an analysis of its supply structure based on quantitative firm-level data. The application of the dual approach is demonstrated using the case of a medical technology cluster. A dual approach fosters a multi-faceted understanding of a cluster, can produce very applicable results and offers a more comprehensive actor-integration.
Related content
Access to resources
Recommend
