Merging a Firm-centred and a Regional Policy Perspective for the Assessment of Regional Clusters: Concept and Application of a “Dual” Approach to a Medical Technology Cluster

Clusters have gained considerable attention from regional planners and policy-makers. In order to support their decision process, a “top-down” analysis has evolved, the regional agglomeration as a whole being the object of analysis. The importance of cluster-membership for the management of individual firms and their “bottom-up” view of a cluster has attracted much less attention. This paper proposes a “dual” approach: based on an integral view of clusters a survey-tool is developed to capture the top-down perspective. It is supplemented with a bottom-up view using structured interviews in a core firm and an analysis of its supply structure based on quantitative firm-level data. The application of the dual approach is demonstrated using the case of a medical technology cluster. A dual approach fosters a multi-faceted understanding of a cluster, can produce very applicable results and offers a more comprehensive actor-integration.