What are Innovation Superclusters?
Business clusters, or agglomeration economies, are a natural phenomenon in many regions and to many economic activities. Clusters have been recognized in management literature since the 1890s, tracing back to the earliest days of human-organised economic activities — as suppliers, customers and partners naturally would group together.
In most parts of the world, clusters are understood as geographical clusters, often around a specific industry or field. Media, high-tech, life sciences, med-tech, space travel, maritime, finance, seafood, energy; these all have strong geographical clusters that have evolved and matured naturally over time.
Today, we are learning to build, shape and design far more impactful clusters.
We see new clusters rapidly emerging, often built around the “industries of the future”, helping regions, nations and national leaders navigate economic shifts and prepare for new economic growth in future growth industries.
Since the early 2000s, the term Supercluster has been evolving, shaping ambitious political and industrial thinking in Asia, Americas and Europe.
Having personally worked with Supercluster development projects in Europe and Asia, we deeply believe in the power of Innovation Superclusters to accelerate industry shifts and help race a region, a country or an industry into the future.
Yet, we recognize the work, the complexity and the massive amount of stakeholders to engage to successfully scale a Supercluster.
Definitions
Let’s start by clearing things up a bit.
Ecosystem
Innovation ecosystems are thriving hot spots, often focused on entrepreneurship, capital & corporate innovation. Mostly emergent but supported by government policies. Universities play a critical role. Will encompass multiple themes, i.e. tech, hardware, AI, mobility, health tech, & software.No single formal organization. No CEO.
Cluster
Innovation clusters can be both naturally emergent or built. EU alone has 3,000 clusters, most aligned with an academic institution. Often very local by design and focus. Built around supply chains and/or the Triple Helix framework. Small in size, limited funding. Often relying on project funding.
Innovation Supercluster
Innovation Superclusters are massive innovation systems, built around a single theme (i.e. solar energy). Designed around industries of the future, they are expected to generate significant value as they develop. Built around the five stakeholder groups, often clustered closely together. Has a formal organization, board, CEO, staff, budget and annual reporting.
Three Types of Clusters
In our recent report, we lay out the three types of clusters we see. These are Emerging Cluster, Growth Cluster and Supercluster.
Emerging Clusters
These are small, incomplete and very local by design. They typically count 25–50 members, with easy outlook up to ca. 100 members.
Growth Clusters
These are stronger organizations, enjoy more stable funding, have far higher levels of activities and generate more value to their stakeholders.
Superclusters
Superclusters are rare and few between. Once fully developed, they become global magnets for talent, capital and ideas. They easily span regional and national borders and have a significantly higher value creation than their smaller peers. From start to full potential, a Supercluster should expect a ten-year timeline or more.
Now, if we simplify things, a Supercluster is really all about impact and value creation. That’s it.
What does a Supercluster actually do?
Think of an Innovation Supercluster as a magnet.
Fully developed, an Innovation Supercluster attracts. It pulls in. It naturally draws in the very best companies, startups, investors, researchers, policymakers and future shapers.
A successful Innovation Supercluster pulls in the best people in the field, from all over the world. It represents a unique, world-class break-through environment for the very best people, brains, companies and investors to create the future in that specific field, whether that is clean energy, drones, autonomous mobility or fin-tech.
Connect & Collaborate
The core activity of any Supercluster is recruit members, connect and launch collaborative projects. By building a trust-based collaboration platform, members create higher economic value.
Build Better Innovation Systems
Superclusters educate, train, coach, mentor and develop innovation skills at the ecosystem level. This is an open innovation in practice.
Build New Growth Industries
Long-term, Superclusters exist to accelerate the development of new, high-growth industries. Develop a strategy today for building your key national industries in 2050.
Download the “Building Innovation Superclusters” report here.
Pre-register for the upcoming book here.
Sign up for the Global Cluster Leadership online program here.
