Cluster Policies, Organising Capacity and Regional Resilience: Evidence from German Case Studies

Abstract

Resilience refers to the ability of a regional economy to recover from external shocks and to return to a sustainable growth path afterwards. This paper departs from the assumption that by improving a region’s organis-ing capacity, cluster policies can strengthen regional re-silience. We argue that the impact of cluster policies on regional resilience depends on the portfolio of clusters targeted for promotion, which may increase specialisation, unrelated or related variety in a region’s economic fabric. Based on a multidimensional model of cluster policies, case study evidence from seven German regions is drawn from an interview survey of 145 practitioners, policy advi-sors and independent observers. By illustrating the con-nections between cluster policy, organising capacity, and specialisation versus variety, these findings can be linked conceptually to regional economic resilience. This argu-ment allows for some policy recommendations and the formulation of issues for further research.