new partnerships through co-design and knowledge exchange between government , industry , tertiary education , and community . Around the same time a community led initiative , the Earthworker Manufacturing Cooperative 9 , was evolving through the interactions between the trade union , environment movements , and concerned citizens for a sustainable world . The Earthworker cooperative commenced manufacturing the ‘ Everlast ’ solar hot water tanks in late 2017 to contribute to building local manufacturing capabilities . Both initiatives arose from disruption , and collaboration is essential to moving such initiatives forward .
These few examples of what is likely hundreds if not thousands across Australia , exhibit to various degrees , a revised view of Competition , Cluster , and Collaboration . Each one is a form of cluster initiative , that may or may not result in a cluster outcome and furthermore may or may not even succeed . Each one though is a step that is intending at least to foster socioeconomic interactions and alignment across a community to maintain or grow the prosperity of place .
Notably , we can also observe a mix of government led top-down ( REZ in Queensland and the LVA in Victoria ), community led bottom-up ( TTNQ in Queensland and the Earthworker Manufacturing Cooperative in Victoria ), and a couple of initiatives that sit between top-down and bottom-up ( the BCV 2030 and the Indigenous Knowledge Hub ). This inconsistency in approaches to forming collaborations leads to our concluding question .
THE CONCLUDING QUESTION : SO WHAT ? In Australia , I suggest , we have not yet found our way to consistently deal with place-based prosperity . It is to a large extent a hit and miss affair and will likely remain so while ever we carefully divide our thinking between top-down and bottom-up approaches . Clusters were originally observed as an emergent property of complex socioindustrial systems that were detected in hindsight due to the prior decisions , many uncoordinated , by a variety of socioeconomic actors within the proximity of a place . The emergence of system properties is neither a top-down nor a bottom-up engineered outcome but an unfolding effect of the series of iterative changes in socioeconomic interactions .
Re-thinking competition invites us to examine more closely how we collaborate in our place-based economies . Are we competing against each other or are we aware that the competition is how we win against the histories and external forces that threaten or undermine our prosperity in place ?
Re-thinking clusters , questions whether the objective cluster outcome is an illusion of top-down and bottom-up motivated actors . Rather , a cluster initiative view suggests that every step change or radical revamp of the socio-industrial structure is an opportunity to reach a new place-based ‘ best ’ socioeconomic condition . What may emerge from this approach could be something akin to a cluster . Potentially however , it could be some new form of socio-industrial organisation that future academics , following in the footsteps of Michael Porter , may define with a new label . Maintaining and driving prosperity is the objective and the emergence of a cluster is one potential long-term outcome .
Re-thinking collaboration means challenging the idea of either a top-down and bottom-up approach as appropriate to socioeconomic development . It invites us instead to meet in the middle and work closely together to define the next project that unites the socioeconomic community in a common localised agenda . Collaboration can be around projects that take small steps or major advances , but each step is one step along the way of a never-ending journey toward a sustained and viable place-based economy . The goal of each project must be larger than any one actor can achieve but equally only achievable through cooperation motivated by a sufficiently desirable outcome across the diverse stakeholders .
After close to ten years of thinking about , exploring , examining , and engaging with different entrepreneurial ecosystem arguments , it is clear to me that the differences in thinking between ecosystems and clusters are subtle shifts in mindsets and vantage points . This pause to re-think lends weight to the need to adopt an ecosystem approach when developing and applying initiatives that address place-based prosperity . Being aware of ecosystem tipping points and imbalances before the imposition of project interventions will ground more successful projects designed to preserve or increase locational prosperity . It is time to leverage our past learning and to closely examine what works best in Australia for Australia . Our next national project should be to consolidate and refine a new way forward to facilitate our regional and national prosperity .
REFERENCES
1 . See Porter , M . ( 1990 ). The Competitive Advantage of Nations , The Macmillan Press , London , UK .
2 . Porter , M . ( 1987 ) From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy , available at https :// web . uniroma1 . it / dip _ management / sites / default / files / optional % 20reading % 201 % 20porter _ 0 . pdf , accessed 25th February 2022 .
3 . See Cambridge , https :// dictionary . cambridge . org / dictionary / english / collaboration ; Oxford , https :// www . oxfordlearnersdictionaries . com / definition / american _ english / collaboration , accessed 25th February , 2022 .
4 . Refer Tourism Tropical North Queensland , 2022 , available at https :// tourism . tropicalnorthqueensland . org . au / about-us /, accessed 25th February , 2022 .
5 . Refer QREZ , 2021 , available at https :// infrastructurepipeline . org / project / queenslandrenewable-energy-zones , accessed 25th February , 2022 .
6 . Refer Food Systems Summit , 2021 , available at https :// foodsystems . community / commitmentregistry / bega-valley-circular-economyinitiative /#:~: text = The % 20 ’ Bega % 20Circular % 20 Valley % 202030 , replicated % 20by % 20other % 20 regions % 20globally , accessed 25th February , 2022 .
7 . Refer Kaiela Institute , 2021 , available at https :// www . kaielainstitute . org . au / uploads / 7 / 9 / 1 / 0 / 7910149 / gmrpp _ booklet _ v24 _ final _ sml _ res . pdf , accessed 25th February , 2022 .
8 . Refer Fastenrath , S ., Goedegebuure , L ., Wilson , B ., Ward , C ., Schoen , M . 2020 , Getting Regional Development Right . Available at : https :// pursuit . unimelb . edu . au / articles / getting-regionaldevelopment-right , accessed 26th February , 2022 .
9 . Refer Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative , 2022 , available at https :// earthworkerenergy . coop / about-us /, accessed 26th February , 2022 .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
VOL 15 NO 1 2022 08 www . edaustralia . com . au