Les clusters : Diversité des pratiques et mesures de performance

Within the European context, current policies for innovation and competitiveness are often based on the cluster?s principles, as in France for example with the « pôles de compétitivité » policy. Implementing such policies creates new needs for indicators capable to characterize clusters and also to better grasp their impact on the performances of firms and more generally on local development. This article aims at reviewing existing methods for the measurement of clusters? performances, underlining their main interests and limitations, and particularly insisting on the diversity of practices. It results in proposals for the elaboration of a monitoring scoreboard for clusters.