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Corporate Growth & Economic Development
Insights
Industry Growth Clusters
The use of industry clusters for recruitment and retention is a field that has gained a lot of attention. Universities are key assets in the development and expansion of clusters and are at the core of the intersection of industrial policy, technology policy, and regional policy. The ability of local universities to work with existing industry to solve their R&D challenges, create unique discoveries and technologies for industry, or build entrepreneurs who create their own companies- nurtured by a university-based incubator builds on cluster development in the community, dramatically changes the region in a number of ways. Michael Porter mapped four interactive dimensions that relate to cluster competitiveness:
- Factor conditions
- Demand conditions
- Firm strategy and rivalry
- Supporting industries
- (and finally) promote Ottawa to the world.
The way firms compete and cooperate is key to the health of the cluster and to increasing the economic vitality of the region.
A community identifies development of a cluster by creating benchmarks (number of firms in the cluster, number of people employed in the cluster, services and suppliers supporting the cluster, etc.) and then tracking the growth of the cluster over time. Local economic development agencies aware of the cluster can then develop regional policies and resources to continue cluster growth, and point to the cluster when recruiting new companies to the region. Companies want to see cluster development when making relocation decisions: it validates a talent and supplier base they can draw on during start-up and growth.