La politique des pôles de compétitivité : la question de l'articulation entre compétitivité des entreprises et compétitivité des territoires

Competitiveness cluster policy devotes the advent of the concept of competitiveness of local territories in France. The aim of this paper is to think about the limits of such policies which associate competitiveness of firms and of territories in which they are located. On one hand, competitiveness applied to a territory is a very debatable concept. On the other hand, it doesn?t go hand in hand with that of firms. To promote the competitiveness of firms can, in certain cases, degrade the standard of living on the territory and its attractiveness. Moreover, if local territories are one of the elements which determine competitiveness of firms, we have to admit that this last one also depends on other elements. Some of them are defined on other spatial scales (national system of innovation, European scale, etc.) and some of them depend on characteristics (size, capacity to cooperate, etc.) and strategies of firms.