A Public Choice Perspective on Regional Cluster and Network Promotion in Germany

Comparatively late by international standards, clusters and networks have now become established concepts in the development strategies of most German states and regions. However, there is a strong impression that policy and practice are running far ahead of our theoretical and empirical understanding of clusters. While conventional cluster theory fails to explain the spread and functions of such policies, this paper develops a Public Choice model that assumes different rationalities for consultants, politicians and practitioners, causing academic research and the practice of cluster development to drift apart. This is confronted with empirical evidence from two independent yet complementary surveys. The first covered 134 practitioners, consultants and observers of regional cluster policy case studies with semi-structured interviews, while the second relied on a postal questionnaire yielding responses from 123 cluster and network managers. Our findings illustrate the self-conception of practitioners and their specific rationality, which can be confronted with the state of scholarly knowledge on clusters and networks. It is found that in the practical action space, conceptual differences between clusters and networks, as well as emergence and growth, hardly matter. Rather than emerging and evolving organically, both are understood as organized phenomena, and there is a strong technocratic belief in the ability to govern their development. The paper aims to shed some light on why the policy tail appears to be wagging the analytical dog by neglecting research findings and proper empirical identification of clusters and networks and what scholarly research could do to regain political and practical relevance.