In the US and Europe many clusters initiatives have recently been launched. National and regional governments have been defining and implementing clusters policies and programmes with the aim to identifying, launching and finally consolidating international competitive clusters in their...

The boom of clusters is leading to an 'explosion' of initiatives which in many cases lack an integrated approach. There are some methodologies which although strong technically, are expensive and often impossible to implement due to the shortage of basic information. This study proposes a...

Clusters and cluster policy has become a widespread phenomena. The general thought shows that, somehow, clusters are directly related to business competitiveness and regional growth. In this context, the Spanish Ministry of Industry has implemented a cluster policy since 2007 known as the AEIs...

Regarding context conditions and the role of territories on competitiveness and innovation, clusters have become progressively a spreading phenomenon all around the world. Recently, the importance of clusters has been mixed with the concept of smart specialization, a territorial development...

In the current new competitive environment, smart specialization has emerged strongly as a territorial development model to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of economic systems. An aspect from which it differs from previous models is the special emphasis on governance. In this...

The paper presents the changing role of evaluation for public policies and the increasing importance of comprehensive evaluation systems for more effective and learning public institutions. In this context, evaluation systems are becoming an essential element of governance and democratic...