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Features of the European Maritime Clusters
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The paper analyses the national and regional European maritime clusters according to the sea basin division proposed by the European Union Integrated Maritime Policy: Atlantic and Arctic oceans; Baltic, Black, Mediterranean and North seas. In line with Wijnolst, Jensen & Sødal (2003) that propose a maritime sector benchmarking - the “Global Maritime Benchmarking” – which should allow evaluating the maritime clusters evolution and strength - the paper start to estimate nine indicators: 1. structural indicators (no. of clusters, no. of companies, no. of employees, no. of sectors, technological level, location); 2. economic indicators (Gross Added Value, production, productivity, profit and rentability rates); 3. internationalisation (exports and imports, major clients and suppliers, international average prices, EU and third countries markets shares); 4. critical mass (agglomerations and scale economies by maritime sector) and leader firms; 5. level playing-field (free-competition, monopolistic, oligopolistic markets);
6. innovation (major universities and R&D centres, no. patents, regional innovation systems);
7. institutional framework (governance, connection with regional and national governments)and business networks; 8. labour market (unemployment rate, average wages) and education (major schools and courses by different grades, training centres); and 9. Image and communication. The comparison between sea basins will allow characterizing “Maritime Europe’, identifying the location of the main excellence centres and the major beneficiaries of the Integrated Maritime Policy decisions. The paper also suggest public strategies that would support clusters development – or “cluster enablers” – that include, among others, the definition of an industrial policy, strengthening of demand pull sectors or the promotion of innovation, R&D and leader firms. The needed conditions in order that Europe could organise itself has a “vast continental maritime cluster” are also under scrutiny
Description
Keywords
Maritime Clusters Maritime Economy EU Sea Basin Strategies
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Salvador, Regina; Simões, Abel; Soares, Carlos Guedes (2015). Features of the European Maritime Clusters, 55th Congress of the European Regional Science Association: "World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places", 25-28 August 2015, Lisbon, Portugal, European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Louvain-la-Neuve.