Building and development of miniclusters in environmental business. InnoEnvi project

A large development programme - the InnoEnvi programme - concerning environmental business, enterprises and networking was carried out between the spring of 2002 and January 2004. The InnoEnvi programme covered Southern Finland and the major enterprises and other actors operating in the field of environmental business. The aim of the programme was to create and develop six different miniclusters within this line of business. The miniclusters established as part of the InnoEnvi programme were: Energy management, Waste management, Ecological environmental knowledge, Water supply, Environmental management in the mining and mineral industry, and Environmental measurement. The model of a minicluster was created in the development programme. The model is based on various structural and functional elements of enterprise networks, such as value streams, learning centers and network groups. The starting point for establishing a minicluster is the identification and definition of potential products, services, markets, customer segments, and customer groups. The minicluster is a complex enterprise network that may provide products and services for customers in one or several market segments and/or lines of business. The development, production and delivery of those products and services require participation of several actors which are likely to represent several areas of business and know-how. The minicluster can include a regional or a national dimension and it may also develop into a regional learning and innovation center. The development cycle, a method applied in many previous development projects, was chosen as a model for building and developing environmental miniclusters. The development cycle is a stepwise and systematic method for making progress enterprise networks, miniclusters, environment, waste management, water supply, energy supply, mining, change management, virtual networks, models in development projects. The method consists of five basic phases: definition of miniclusters, analysis, choice and specification of development targets, planning and experimentation, and crystallization and implementation of export concepts. Appropriate organization and implementation models and methods for starting and developing the miniclusters were created. They included interviews, seminars, management groups, working groups, network meetings, development forums, and strategies and descriptions concerning organization and activity processes. The minicluster model and the development cycle were applied and tested in the six miniclusters created as part of the programme. A total of 74 enterprises and other actors took part in the analysis and development activities. Strategies and development programs for miniclusters were originally formulated on the basis of interviews and analyses. Those plans were then addressed and prioritized by the management of participating enterprises. The development work was directed to a wide range of activities, such as market research, mutual export efforts, making funding applications, project planning, starting product development projects, and organizing training sessions and seminars. As a result, permanent structures and patterns of operation were established within the miniclusters, which will also support co-operation between enterprises and other actors in the future. Three potential development paths were created as part of the InnoEnvi programme: an approach for SME groups, a virtual network approach, and a product and service approach. These models are described with five dimensions. The further development opportunities of environmental miniclusters in general were assessed by means of the above-mentioned three models. The six miniclusters created during the programme were also placed in the models and their characteristics were considered.