Proceedings of the 14th International Academic Conference, Malta

THE CLUSTER INITIATIVES

KATARÍNA KRAMÁROVÁ, MARGARÉTA NADÁNYIOVÁ, EVA KICOVA

Abstract:

The development of the national economy of any country is (besides others) highly addicted to the economic success of its business entities. However, due to the process of trade globalization and market liberalization, the business environment has become more competitive that requires companies to build up own competitiveness not only in the domestic, but as well in the international measure. If we take into account the fact that approximately 99% of Slovak businesses are formed by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), next that our economy has character of opened one (in the meaning of export and import transaction), to compete with rival multinational companies is a question of their daily survival. The way how to support the development and competitiveness of such kind companies (that the practice has proved as well), consequently the regional and national economic development, the concept of business clusters is considered. “Business clusters are a striking and common feature in today´s economy, nonetheless it is not exactly a new phenomenon – it has been the object of attention from a wide variety of social scientists” (Kuah, 2002, p. 207), economists and practitioners for much of this century. Currently, in broader sense of word, we may talk about the clustering of different economic activities – about the close cooperation between cluster members (constituents) such as different kinds of entrepreneurs of different size and business history, universities, independent research institutions, trade associations, and government and its institutions. The role of business clusters has become increasingly important for the Slovak economy, too. The presented paper deals with the concept of business clusters. Briefly, at first its theoretical aspects are discussed (mainly from the point of view of its ability to support building competitive advantages for businesses and regional/national economy). Then we focus on brief presentation of the Slovak cluster policy and official cluster initiatives in Slovakia.

Keywords: cluster, cluster initiatives, cluster policy, competitiveness, cooperation, globalization, innovations, regional development

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