PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION: A USEFUL TOOL FOR CONTEXTUALISING CLUSTER POLICY? Published as: Aragón, C., Aranguren, M-J., Diez, M-A., Iturrioz, C. & Wilson, J. R (2014). ‘Participatory Evaluation: A Useful Tool for Contextualising Cluster Policy?’, Policy Studies, 35:1, 1-21 Cristina Aragón Deusto Business School (University of Deusto), Mundaiz 50, San Sebastían 20012, Spain, cristina.aragon@deusto.es. Tel. +34 943 32 66 00 (Ext. 5475) Mari Jose Aranguren Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and Deusto Business School, Mundaiz 50, San Sebastían 20012, Spain, mjarang@orkestra.deusto.es Tel. +34 943 32 66 00 (Ext. 5391) Mari Angeles Diez University of the Basque Country, Campus de Leioa 48949 Leioa, Spain, mariaangeles.diez@ehu.es. Tel.+34 94 6013106 Cristina Iturrioz Deusto Business School (University of Deusto), Mundaiz 50, San Sebastían 20012, Spain, cristina.iturrioz@deusto.es. Tel. +34 943 32 66 00 (Ext. 5222) James R. Wilson Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and Deusto Business School, Mundaiz 50, San Sebastían 20012, Spain, jwilson@orkestra.deusto.es. Tel. +34 943 32 66 00 (Ext. 5535) Author’s Biographical notes: Dr. Cristina Aragón is Associate Professor in Business Organization and Policy of the Deusto Business School -University of Deusto-. Ph. D in Economics and Management Studies since 1999; nowadays, she is the Strategy and Information System Department Director of the Deusto Business School and the Researcher of the Research Team on 'Competitiveness and Economic Development' of the University of Deusto. Her main research areas of interest are family SMEs and competitiveness. Additionally, she has focused her research on network policies and their evaluation; she has published journal articles like “A Social Capital Approach for Network Policy Learning: The Case of an Established Cluster Initiative” European Urban and Regional Studies on these subjects. Dr. Mari José Aranguren is Director of Research at Orkestra, and lecturer at Deusto Business School. She is an expert in the applied analysis of SMEs, cluster policy initiatives and regional competitiveness strategies, on which she has published extensively. Mari Jose has significant experience in research project leadership (e.g. Social Capital in Gipuzkoa, EU FEDER), and her