A contextual analysis of clusters in Morocco : What lessons for an integrated territorial policy and more competitive SMEs ?

The territory has become an area of research that is increasingly interesting to the scientific community due to its crucial role in the sustainable and efficient development of national businesses. As a result, a network of competitive ecosystems has been steadily developing since the launch of the "Competitive Morocco" plan in 1995, leading to various forms of inter-organizational agglomeration such as integrated industrial platforms, technopoles, and clusters. However, the Moroccan context lacks qualitative and quantitative studies to fully understand and grasp the variety, multiplicity, and specificities of the existing ecosystem forms. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory study using an interpretativist approach, focusing on a specific form of grouping known as clusters. The aim was to understand the pace of change in this territorial mechanism, analyze its intervention strategies, and assess its geographical and sectoral distribution across the country. Our work resulted in an analytical map based on a non-probabilistic sample of 17 clusters, enabling us to capture the state of cluster evolution by geographical region, sector, intervention strategies, governance mode, and financing. The results from this exploratory study will be utilized in a second confirmatory study to measure the impact of territorial mechanisms on business competitiveness.