Harvard Business School has published a case study on cluster policy in Catalonia and its contribution to the competitiveness of the business fabric. A text that highlights how clusters have had a "critical" positive impact on Catalan companies and that Catalonia is one of the most developed regions in this field in Europe. This was announced last Monday by the Minister of Business and Labor, Roger Torrent i Ramió, and Harvard Business School researcher Christian Ketels, during a meeting with the presidents of the Catalan clusters and representatives of the ecosystem.
The development of clusters ---groups of companies and agents such as universities and technology centers in a specific economic area such as agricultural production means, sports, advanced materials or fashion--- is a methodology to improve the competitiveness of companies, understanding their strategic challenges and subsequently building an agenda of change projects. In Catalonia, the Generalitat began to promote them in 1992, something that the business school emphasizes: it explains that "few initiatives have been maintained for such a long period of time" and the "strong indications that this success in keeping this program active reflects the value it brings to Catalonia and its economy."
In this sense, it emphasizes that executives confirm that their participation in cluster activities has helped their companies "critically," as they have better indicators in areas such as turnover, job creation, innovation, or internationalization than companies that are not part of these organizations.
The Minister of Business and Labor, Roger Torrent i Ramió, assured during the meeting that "cluster policy is a successful asset and is very important for the Government and for the competitiveness of the Catalan economy. In the last three years, 400 new companies have joined the clusters, gaining muscle for the future."
For his part, the Harvard Business School expert stressed that "Catalonia is a global reference in cluster policy. Many regions and countries in the world can learn about how public policies and cluster structures have adapted to economic and global changes over the last thirty years." Ketels, a world leader in business competitiveness, explained that "today, Catalonia has a cluster structure with private leadership, working in close cooperation with the Government, through ACCIÓ, which leads the ecosystem and offers methodological and economic support with a global vision of which sectors best characterize the Catalan economic fabric. For this reason, this policy is a clear and effective example that can serve as a learning experience for other regions."
The students who will study the Catalan case are specialized in microeconomics and business competitiveness studies from MBA courses and Master's in Public Administration (MPA), as well as alumni of these courses and students from a hundred international universities that collaborate with Harvard Business School, who will also have access to the study of the Catalan case.
A leading ecosystem
Regarding the environment, Harvard highlights the fact that international organizations of reference in cluster work such as the TCI Network ---the global network of professionals and organizations active in cluster-based economic development--- or the European Foundation for Cluster Excellence (dedicated to the training of cluster professionals worldwide) are located in the Catalan capital, a city "recognized as a hubleading European and global metropolis". In fact, it emphasizes Catalonia's "strong industrial tradition", the fact that it has reached the category ofstrong innovatorby the European Commission in the European innovation ranking, as well as recent investments by multinationals such as Microsoft, with the opening of an R&D center focused on AI in Barcelona, or thehubof R&D of the pharmaceutical AstraZeneca.The case of the business school also points to Catalonia's activity in international networks linked to clusters and projects financed by the European Union. It highlights that, with 41 clusters registered on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform, Catalonia is the region with the most organizations, above Lithuania, Bavaria (Germany), and Baden-Württemberg (Germany), as well as that Catalonia is also the European region with the highest number of clusters that have received funding through the European Union's Euroclusters program.
More than 70,000 million euros in turnover
The Catalunya Clústers program currently incorporates 27 Catalan clusters that group more than 2,700 companies and associated agents with a turnover of more than 70,000 million euros, representing 36% of Catalonia's industrial turnover and 36% of industrial jobs.By type, cluster partners represent a diverse fabric of actors, including SMEs (68%); large companies (10%); research centers, universities, and knowledge providers (9%); startups (8%); and environmental agents (5%). Through this initiative, the aim is to help them focus their strategy, develop shared value training programs, co-finance strategic projects, organize trips to reference ecosystems for international benchmarking and close collaboration projects between Catalan clusters or with international entities, among others.