Cluster policy in the Basque country (1991–2002): constructing ‘industry–government’ collaboration through cluster‐associations

Abstract

In this article the industrial cluster policy in the Basque Region (Spain) since the early 1990s is analysed as a social process, where public and private organizations and institutions have interplayed and fostered two interrelated outcomes: (a) the construction of cluster‐associations, contributing to the development of inter‐firm interactions and a more inclusive industrial associationism in the weak Basque industrial and business associative system; and (b) the construction of an industry–government collaboration dynamic within a traditional lack of industry–government interactive relations. These outcomes present some strengths and weaknesses, and indicate some potentials to improve the initiated regional ‘industry–government’ collaboration.

Notes

At the European Union level, there have also been recent reports on cluster analysis and policies: besides the report Regional Clusters in Europe (2002) by the European Observatory of SMEs, there are the Final Report of the Expert Group on Enterprise Clusters and Networks (2003), and a Thematic Report on Cluster Policies in the European Trend Chart on Innovation (2003), both by the European Commission Enterprise Directorate‐General.

Despite ETA's declining social and political support in the last decade, as an example of this negative environment we can recall the assassination in the summer 2000 of the president of the Business Association of Gipuzkoa, and owner of a local SME firm. He was known among other things for encouraging entrepreneurs not to pay the ‘revolutionary tax’.

See Whyte and Whyte (1988) for the emergence and evolution of Mondragon Cooperatives until late 1980s.

This description and information cannot include in more detail the quantitative and qualitative evolution of the cluster‐associations and their inter‐firm cooperation dynamics, which is expected to be presented in future articles.

J. Azua had studied at the Opus‐Dei owned private business school IESE in Barcelona in the early 1980s.

See Moso and Olazaran (2001) for an analysis of the latest evolution of Basque Innovation Policy.