The Role of Innovative Clusters in the Process of Internationalization of Firms

Abstract

Abstract-This article focuses on innovative clusters and the role they play in the process of business engagement into foreign markets. This concept falls into the network approach of firm's internationalization, according to which an enterprise may internationalize when it develops a set of exchange relationships. One of the specific forms of network is cluster, with geographical and sectoral concentration as the key characteristic distinguishing it from other kinds of network structures. The aim of the article is to examine the role of clusters for innovation activity and for facilitating the process of internationalization of firms. The study shows that the latter may happen twofold: through clusters influence on affiliated company's internationalization behavior from the one side and by increasing location attractiveness of the regions for foreign direct investments from the second side. I. INTRODUCTIONInternationalization of firms has become a key concept in modern world economy, with many organizations embracing the opportunity to go international. The global market is gaining popularity and importance as a market and a base for internationally active companies and those which want to internationalize. In contemporary world economy, successful businesses must take advantage of opportunities created by many factors that drive globalization processes, like: dynamic technological and communication developments, decreasing barriers to international trade and investment or regional integration. It results in vibrant increase of firm's international engagements, like: exports and imports, foreign direct investments and networking of suppliers, consumers, technology developers and researchers. The globalization of business can be easily recognized in the spread of many brands and services throughout the world.One of the most important concept explaining the process of companies engagement into foreign markets is network approach. J. Johanson and L. Mattsson [1] consider business networks as the relationships a firm has with its customers, distributors, suppliers, competitors and government, which are the actors in a network. According to them, as the company internationalises, the number and strength of the relationships between different elements of the business network increases. Uppsala Model [2], which is experiential knowledge. Through network internationalization, a company can gain access to other firms' experiential knowledge without necessarily going through the same experiences. An enterprise learns about the capabilities, needs and strategies of its partner, as well as about business conditions and the networks. In this case, a typical internationalization process has changed from gradual, sequence expansion to expansion in leaps by joining the nets [2].One of the most popular type of network is cluster, which was defined by M.E. Porter as "geographic concentration of interconnected companies, suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (e.g., universities, st...

Lietuvos turizmo klasterių plėtros perspektyvos

“…Viena iš mokslinių koncepcijų, leidžianti paaiškinti ekonominių aglomeracijų perspektyvumą, yra tinklaveika (Kowalski 2014;Global Report on ... 2015) ir verslo organizacijų orientacija į tarptautinius verslo tinklus (Jucevičius ir kt. 2012;Ketels 2017).…”

“…2012;Gilienė 2014;Skaržauskienė ir kt. 2014; Global Report on ... 2015; Ketels 2017) arba yra smulkių organizacijų jungimasis į asociaciją (Kowalski 2014;Sala 2016).…”

“…Klasterizacija yra vienas iš būdų atsirasti regionuose verslo (įmonių) ir neverslo organizacijų (mokslinių tyrimų insitutų, universitetų, verslo inkubatorių, technologinių parkų, vietos savivaldos institucijų, prekybos asociacijų, verslo plėtros agentūrų ir t.t.) ekonominėms aglomeracijoms, kurios skirtos bendrai vykdyti ekonomines veiklas pasitelkiant sukauptas žinias, bendrai plėtoti verslo ryšius ir pasitelkti ekonomikos plėtros priemones (Kowalski 2014cit. op.…”

Internationalization of Bulgarian Clusters

“…As a result of internationalization, there is a growth of firms' engagements as exports and imports, foreign direct investment and others. There is a growing number of evidence that cluster structures play an important role in the process of a firm's internationalization (Kowalski, 2014).…”

Cluster's innovaton development through the territory of the regions

“…At the same time, it is impossible to forget that technology parks provides the creation of an innovative product. Kowalski claims, (Kowalski, 2014) that clusters stimulate horizontal cooperation communications between research organizations and the entities implementing results of researches and developments directly in production process. According to Sallet, Paisley and Masterman (Sallet, Paisley and Masterman, 2009) innovations act as an exclusive factor of economic growth in the long term.…”