Forms of creation of industrial clusters in biotechnology

Since its origin, biotechnology has developed in few centres of excellence identifiable as biotech clusters. Even if these usually present common features in terms of organisations involved and critical resources available, the process of creation significantly varies from case to case. Most literature contributions, however, concentrated on the description of clusters that remain a ‘‘black box’’, where less attention has been paid to their dynamics. This paper investigates different forms of cluster creation in biotech, primarily based on five in-depth case studies of biotech clusters in Europe (Cambridge, Heildelberg, Aarhus, Marseilles, Milano) at different stages of development. Moreover, the paper briefly analyses other 7 interesting cases of biotech clusters, both in Europe and US. The paper proposes a taxonomy identifying two major forms of cluster creation: (i) spontaneous clusters, that are the result of the spontaneous co-presence of key factors; (ii) policy driven clusters, that are triggered by the strong commitment of governmental actors whose willingness was to set the conditions for the cluster creation, either as a response to an industrial crisis or as a deliberate decision to foster the biotech sector. In a few cases, both forms of cluster creation coexist, thus determining a hybrid process.