Christian H.M. Ketels

Harvard University | Harvard · Harvard Business School

Purpose This paper aims to review the evidence on Europe’s economic performance and on the role played by policies pursued at the European Union (EU) level, using the competitiveness framework as the conceptual lens. Design/methodology/approach Why has Europe not made more progress on upgrading its competitiveness over the past few decades, despit...

This paper takes a fresh empirical look at how cluster presence matters for economic performance. It analyses a new data set developed for the European Cluster Observatory to assess the impact of clusters on industry-level wages and regional prosperity. It is found that industry-level wages are associated with industry-and surrounding-cluster agglo...

Global trade has been transformed repeatedly throughout history, driven by a combination of new technologies and new policy rules that unlock their power. Digitization is now promising another transformation of global trade, one with similarly far-reaching consequences for economies, companies, and individuals. This article looks at the change alre...

The role of regions in competitiveness has achieved increasing attention in recent years as economic research has increasingly paid more attention to the forces of economic geography. This chapter aims to explore what this new context implies for the role of regional governments. It is motivated by a concern that regional policy is facing an ‘imple...

The report is the first comprehensive cluster mapping of the Indian economy. It applies the cluster classifications derived in Delgado, Porter, Stern to the Indian context. It then uses the data from several waves of the recently introduced Labor Force Survey to generate cluster data at the district level. The analysis conducted provides a detail...

The Roadmap report outlines policy principles and priorities for India as the country aspires to move towards middle-income and beyond over the next 2 years. The recommendations are anchored in an in-depth diagnostic of India's current competitiveness, applying the conceptual framework introduced by Michael Porter. Prof Amit Kapoor and his team at...

COVID-19 has changed the economic context that shape the value of locations' existing competitive advantages, even if has not fundamentally affected their presence. This chapter uses the Competitiveness Scorecard, a framework introduced in the 2017 Swedish Economic Report, to diagnose Sweden's competitiveness at the outset of the pandemic. It then...

This paper quantifies the extent of co-location of innovation and production for industry clusters with varying knowledge intensity. If input-output, knowledge, and skill linkages are interdependent and geographically bounded, then we would expect innovation and production to be co-located in regional clusters. However, theory predicts that the deg...

Denmark is among Europe’s innovation leaders, with a strong science base, high overall investments in R&D activities, and particular strengths in a range of fields. While this position is under no immediate threat, this review finds Denmark failing to fully leverage its strengths and to adjust to a changing global innovation landscape. The review r...

The European Cluster Panorama 2016, launched at the European Cluster Conference in Brussels on 1st December 2016, provides an updated perspective on clusters and emerging industries across Europe. It documents the role and benefits of strong clusters, and shows how emerging industries continue to outperform the rest of the economy. An entirely new...

Annual report about competitiveness and collaboration in the Baltic Sea Region

The report reviews recent research on competitiveness as well as the use of competitiveness frameworks applied in leading international competitiveness rankings and in national competitiveness assessments. The report includes four main parts: The initial chapter focuses on the definition of competitiveness, looking at both the academic debate about...

This guide is an accompanying document to the Policy Area Innovation (PA INNO) Strategy Guide – providing an overview of the impact logic and monitoring framework, elaborating the PA INNO roles and targets, and describing the monitoring process. The guide includes proposed templates for use in establishing a baseline and monitoring progress towards...

Regional policy, especially in Europe, makes increasingly reference to the notion of strategy, a conceptual tool developed in the area of business studies. This chapter reviews some key aspects of strategy as defined by the so-called 'positioning school', and discusses how these ideas can be translated into the context of regions. It identifies dif...

This paper develops policy recommendations on the use of cluster-based economic policies and the adoption of a new concept of competitiveness in the context of the new growth path that WWWforEurope aims to outline. A first section discusses summarizes key findings from the previous research papers in this project on the role of clusters in the New...

This report investigates the potential contribution of clusters and cluster policies in the design and implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategies. Both cluster policies and Smart Specialisation Strategies are policy approaches with a place-based dimension, aiming at exploiting advantages of proximity to promote economic growth and competitiv...

This paper outlines elements of a conceptual framework that clarifies the role that clusters play relative to government policies and actions of individual companies in supporting the emergence of 'High Road'-strategies that lead to better New Growth Path-related outcomes. It then focuses on creating a new set of data that can start shedding light...

This paper reviews implications of recent research on competitiveness and clusters for regions and regional policy. A new framing of competitiveness clarifies the role of regions. Its empirical findings align well with the literature on drivers of regional performance, but there are opportunities for mutual learning. A step-change in the availabili...

Although there is increasing consensus that the presence of clusters enhances economic outcomes, there is little consensus on whether there is a case for policy intervention. If cluster policy is understood as government efforts to create agglomeration artificially, the existing research finds clear reasons to be pessimistic about the ultimate welf...

We define foundational competitiveness as the expected level of output per working-age individual that is supported by the overall quality of a country as a place to do business. The focus on output per potential worker, a broader measure of national productivity than output per current worker, reflects the dual role of workforce participation and...

The objective of this report is to look ahead and identify what new challenges Sweden has to address in order to retain and enhance its ability to achieve high standards of living in global competition. As a ‘base report’ for the Globalization Forum’s work, the intention is to go wide rather than deep: we want to identify areas that are a priority...

This chapter looks at the origins of Porter's interest in clusters and identifies the key characteristics of his conceptual thinking and extensions of these core concepts in Porter's more recent work. It explores the policy implications that can be drawn from Porter's work on clusters. Discussing why Porter's work in this field has had such a profo...

Looking through the lenses of both macro and micro economic policy, this case examines how Singapore has achieved such stellar success throughout its history, from independence through 2008. The case discusses the different policy choices the Singaporean government has made as well as how the government's structure has aided development.Learning Ob...

The chapter outlines key elements of the cluster framework and contrasts it with the framework of industrial districts. It argues that industrial districts describe a specific type of cluster, and focus more on the socio-economic aspects of agglomeration and networks than the cluster research.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of regional concentration patterns within ten new European Union (EU) member states, EU10, and make comparisons with EU15 and the US economy. Design/methodology/approach Industrial specialization and clusters are measured as employment in the intersection between a sector (three‐digit NAC...

Over the last decades, changes in the global economy and the emergence of Global Value Chains (GVCs) have raised the interest in understanding the specific conditions and cross-company interactions within and across locations. For companies, the need to choose the right location for specific activities moved from an operational to a strategic issue...

Does US government policy purposefully benefit particular industries or is industrial policy absent in the USA? Based on a review of recent US policies this paper argues that the USA applies many policies with an industry-specific impact. But these policies do not differ significantly from those in other countries and the process in which US indust...

This article discusses the use of the value network configuration, an alternative to the value chain introduced by authors in response to such concerns about the applicability of the value chain to transaction service structures

The conceptual framework of competitiveness and clusters introduced by Michael Porter in his Competitive Advantage of Nations (Free, New York, 1990 ) remains exceptionally influential, especially among practitioners. The article discusses recent learnings about Porter's conceptual framework from practical applications and research directly driven b...

Executives in industries that facilitate transactions within a network of customers, such as financial services and telecommunications, currently face tough challenges. The factors determining success in their industries are changing rapidly and the boundaries of many of their markets are realigning. General analytical tools exist to support decisi...

This presentation has benefited from Professor Porter's articles and books, in particular, "Clusters and the New Competitive Agenda for Companies and Governments" in On Competition (Harvard Business School Press, 1998), the Clusters of Innovation Initiative (www.compete.org), a project for the OECD on the competitiveness of the Stockholm region, an...