By Karin Gjerløw Høidahl, presented during the 8th TCI Latin American Cluster Conference, Medellin, Colombia, 16-19 June 2015

1. Clusters as vehicle to
Internationalisation
Karin Gjerløw Høidahl,
Norwegian Innovation Clusters
19.June 2015

2. NORWAY
Population: 5 156 451
(Oct 2014)
Area : 385 155 km2
Coastline ( mainland):
25 148 km
Inhabitants per km2
land area: 16,71 ( 2013)
(Annual Coffee
Consumption per capita:
7,2 KG )

3. • Global competition increases in
most industries
• High costs must be
compensated with higher
expertise, efficiency and speed
of innovation!
• Global technological and
marketing development
• Development and ambitions of
the clusters
• SMEs holds many of the
answers
• 99 per cent of the
Norwegian business
community consists of small
and medium-sized
companies (SMEs)
• SMEs represent half of the
productive work in Norway
• 80 per cent of SMEs does
not achieve growth
DOBLIN

4. Innovation Norway
Oslo Main Office
Regional offices
We give local ideas
global opportunities
Regional offices in every county
Offices in more
than 30 countries

5. Goal
Increased competitiveness in
regional clusters through
long-term internal and external collaboration
www.innovationclusters.no

6. POLICY – FUNDING - IMPLEMENTATION
Ministry of
Trade and
Industry
Ministry of
Local Government
And Regional Development
Linking policies
Innovation agencies: Linking roles and resources

8. Selection criteria
Clusters’ resources
Relations and cluster
identification
Position and potential
Ownership and leadership
Goals, strategies and impacts
Implementation plan
The cluster The cluster project

9. Funding
Part-financing of project management and network building (50%)
Advisory
Follow up of projects at regional and national level, Strategic dialogues
and external project advisors
Knowledge and skills
Program meetings, seminars, and relevant workshops
Networking
Cluster to cluster cooperation nationally and international, Offices
abroad, Enterprise Europe Network
Profiling
Norwegian Innovation Clusters as a brand, “Norwegian Clusters”
magazine, support through the service strategic positioning
How do we support the clusters?

10. 10
LOCAL FOCUS
The inner life of
the cluster
Motivate for
collaboration
Trust-building
activities within
the cluster
Study trips
Visits from other
clusters
Limited
commitment
ORIENTATION
Continous focus
on «inner life»
Analysis phase
Development of
common
international
strategy
Participation in,
delegations,
exhibitions,
conferences,
internatuional
projects,
Part commitment
INTERNATIONAL
The international
dimension is a
natural part of
the collaboration
A common
international
strategy
International
lincages within,
competence,
innovation,
technology,
market. access
Focus on
developement of
glogal busiiness
models
MULTINATIONAL
The cluster takes
the step out
internationally
with the
companies
The cluster and
companies have
core activities in
several countries
Multinational
strategy
development
The cluster takes
on an active role
as developemnt
agent in countries
where the cluster
have core
activities
GLOBAL
Development of
global innovation
system
Driving force in a
global
perspective
The companies
are leading in a
global context
Development of
standards and
common
framework
conditions in a
global
perspective

11. • Internationalisation of clusters are not the same as internationalisation of
individual companies
• Internationalisation of clusters are so much more than study trips and
trade fairs
• Internationalisation of clusters are not only export promotion
• Clusters have individual needs, that varies over time
• Need for different competencee and different types of support.
• Clusters are not just sums of individual companies..

12. Strategic dialogues between the
cluster managers and the
missions abroad

13. Trans-National Call for Proposals for the
Internationalisation of SMEs through Clusters
• Innovation Express represents a common European approach
for supporting the internationalization of SMEs through cluster
initiatives.
• Innovation Express is a joint call for proposals
• The call is funded by national/regional funding agencies to
initiate, develop or enhance transnational cooperation activities
– leveraging cluster organizations (or similar) to develop
proposals for their SME members.
• A broad variety of innovation activities, including
technology/knowledge transfer, training, feasibility studies,
strategic analysis and mutual benchmarking are supported, as
well as stages of international cooperation .
http://www.bsrstars.se/project/bsr-innovation-express/

14. Results of the 2nd BSR Innovation Express 2014
• The call attracted 84 applications
• 54 were approved
• – resulting in 35 new international collaboration projects, involving
more than 1200 SMEs in the Baltic Sea Region.
To learn more about the collaboration projects :
http://www.bsrstars.se/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BSR-Innovation-
Express-2014_overview-of-projects.pdf
Potential applicants can meet and develop project ideas in a
Cluster-2-Cluster Conference and Matchmaking event
The 2014 event attracted 300 participants representing 150 clusters from
24 countries, and 433 cluster-to-cluster meetings
To learn more about this years event :
https://www.b2match.eu/cluster-to-cluster-2015

15. • Internationalisation of clusters can include a wide set of strategies and
acitivities, customized for:
• The cluster as a whole and/or for groups of businesses
• Different phases in the clusters development
• Exploring new markets and/or bringing new knowledge home
• Internationalisation strategies for clusters means collaborative actions
aiming at upgrading the international orientation of cluster partners –
and the attractiveness of the cluster environment