How regional innovation clusters form
There's a lot of focus in Washington these days on regional innovation clusters. The federal government is pushing a number of initiatives to promote them.
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Sustainable clusters create value for the members of the network. They evolve over time. They require investment in "the commons"...a set of shared, network-based assets that improve the competitive position for members of the network.
But how do they form?
Here's a graphic that explains the dynamic. Clusters evolve through identifiable stages. This process can be unstructured and serendipitous, or it can be replicated and scaled through a simple discipline. Strategic doing provides the simple, repeatable discipline for forming and developing regional innovation clusters.
Ironically, the biggest challenge in forming these new clusters comes at the federal level.
The federal government can play a role in accelerating the development of these regional innovation clusters by becoming a partner in the process of network formation. As an effective partner, representatives from the federal government -- Commerce, Labor, Agriculture, Energy, HUD -- will need to adopt new attitudes and behaviors.
The federal government's new roles are a departure from its historic role of providing funds through categorical grant programs. These programs are not effective in building regional innovation clusters, since they were designed for a different purpose 30, 40 and 50 years ago. The federal government cannot effectively support 21st-century regional innovation clusters with policies invented for a different era.
To be a full partner in the development of regional innovation clusters, federal agencies will have to innovate within their existing policy frameworks. In the short term, policies will need to be more flexible through waivers of existing regulations.
In the longer-term, new policies will need to be designed and enacted. We will need a new generation of authorizing legislation to guide the development of these clusters. We can start with two big opportunities: the authorizing legislation for the Workforce Investment Act and for the Economic Development Administration.
