• Finally, the paper is static as it does not account for cluster evolution and (policy) learning over time.
For the German cases, the authors may have underestimated public agency, since they did not investigate the role of state governments (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg) within the country’s system of multilevel governance, which is key to understand cluster policies in Germany (cf. KIESE 2013). Furthermore, the state government of Bavaria may be a regional government, but it is certainly not a local authority (like the city of Munich; page 15, line 29) in Germany’s system of multilevel governance.