About the survey

 

A carefully designed survey, administered and completed online by companies and institutions, will collect information from every cluster registered with the Foundation.

Clusters are assessed through a set of indicators referring to different aspects of their economic environment and their way of doing business. All these indicators help to explain the current productivity of the cluster and its potential for productivity growth.

The survey is unique as it collects qualitative data and management opinions in addition to quantitative data, thus painting a clearer picture of a cluster´s performance.

The questions in the survey pertain to topics such as structure and performance of the cluster, company strategy and behaviour of companies within the cluster and the quality of the business environment.

The parties involved

Three different parties take part in the survey process:

The clients of the Cluster Competitiveness Report are the governments, development agencies and industry associations. It is the client who initiates the survey process when he subscribes on line and registers each of his clusters. It is also the client who specifies a start and end date for each cluster within which the survey must be completed.

The cluster rapporteur (an institution or individual that has close links with, or is part of, the cluster) acts as an intermediary between the cluster and the client. He enters the information required at the cluster level. The rapporteur is required to provide specific information relating to the companies and institutions within the cluster. This data is collected in the customized section of the survey.

This customized section contains questions designed to gather information on topics such as the presence and competitiveness of training institutions or the strength of links with knowledge institutions. This information will enable the Cluster Competitiveness Report to carry out a more detailed analysis of the cluster and thus provide the client with a set of actionable results.

The companies and institutions within the specified cluster complete the survey. The quantitative section can be delegated to a member of the organization but the top management of each company must complete the parts requiring qualitative data.

Step 1: Beginning the survey

Each party participating in the survey (clients, rapporteur, companies and institutions) will receive an email indicating that the survey is available on line and that they can start answering the questions straight away.

Step 2: Completing the survey

2.1 Throughout the process a constant chain of communication is maintained between the Foundation and the client. The client will receive regular reminders about which parts of the survey each of its clusters has completed, which parts remain to be completed and how long there is left to complete it. In the same way, the rapporteur receives reminders about the status of his cluster.

2.2 This survey has been specifically designed in order to demand as little as possible of the clients time. The questions offer a set of discrete options, one of which is selected. It will take approximately half an hour for the company or institution to complete the qualitative section of the survey.

2.3 The client must be able to guarantee that companies representing a least 25% of total cluster revenue will participate in the survey. Otherwise a very limited analysis of the cluster will be possible.

Step 3: Finishing the survey

When the data collection period ends, the Cluster Competitiveness Report systems will use the data collected from the survey to conduct analyses and produce the report. Conclusions will be drawn and added to the report, which each client receives. The report, available on-line and in PDF format, will outline the cluster´s current position along with its strengths and weaknesses and its evolution over time.

In the long run the report will also allow cross-region and cross-country analysis among cluster´s operating within the same industry.