1. Inštitut za Konkurenco in Sodelovanje CLUSTERS AS NETWORKED ORGANISATIONS AND NEED FOR ICT PLATFORM I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje dr. Marko Jaklič dr. Hugo Zagoršek Anja Cotič Svetina

2. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje PRESENTATION -Recent developments in economic environment -Increasing importance of clusters and other network organisations -Results of two research projects -EU project -Slovene project -Possibilities for application of ICT infrastructure developed within ECOLEAD

3. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje MEASURES FOR PROMOTING INNOVATIVENESS Network organisations:  Clusters  University and business incubators  Production centres  Supply-chains  Technological networks  Technological platforms Networks are important… but how we can support them?

4. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje SPECIFICS OF NETWORK ORGANISATIONS -Many organisations differing in: -industry -size -goal -organisation -culture, etc. -Need for trust building -Defining common vision and goal -Organise and manage cooperation -Provide resources for joint projects Need for ICT platform for intra-organisational cooperation.

5. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje CLUSTERS AS NETWORKED ORGANISATIONS Porter defines clusters as “geographically proximate groups of interconnected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities”. The competitive advantage of clusters comes from (4) four main characteristics: -Proximity -Linkages -Interactions -Critical mass

6. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje CLUSTERS AS NETWORKED ORGANISATIONS Main advantages of clusters: environment that fosters innovations. Innovation occurs in non-sequential interactions of different companies, universities and research institutions. collective learning process Internal:External: among cluster actorsamong cluster actors and external organisations or other networks

7. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje ROLE OF CLUSTERS  Clusters: focus of policy and private initiatives in the last decade.  Europe: mobilising cluster potential  Lisbon agenda  Global: more than 500 initiatives (GCIS)

8. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje CLUSTER ACTIVITIES WORLDWIDE  Global survey GLOBAL CLUSTER INITIATIVE SURVEY GREENBOOK AND WHITEBOOK  Cluster related organizations THE COMPETITIVENESS INSTITUTE (TCI) http://www.competitiveness.org  Ongoing research projects WEID (EU) http://www.west-east-id.net GLOBELICS (DRUID) http://www.globelics.org LOCAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS PROJECT (MIT) http://web.mit.edu/lis/index.html

9. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje PROJECT 1: WEID “INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS’ RE-LOCATION PROCESSES: IDENTIFYING POLICIES IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF EU ENLARGEMENT”  5TH EU framework program  2001-2004  15 clusters in 7 European countries  Sample of 400 firms and 100 support institutions # CountryRegion 1 Wes t Germany Herford, Nordrhein-Westfalen 2Saxony 3 Italy Verona 4Montebelluna 5Val Vibrata 6Rome 7 UK West Midlands 8Scotland 9 East CZ Mlada Boleslav and Liberec 10Prague 11PolandKalwaria 12 Romania Banat Crisana 13Arad Timisoara 14 Slovenia 15

10. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje MAIN FINDINGS  High need for policy support  No universal initiative  Individual approach to cluster analysis  Motivate: –Internal and external collective learning (bechmarking, best practices) –Cross-border cooperation –Policy learning (local-regional-national-EU)

11. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje PROJECT 2: EVALUATION OF CLUSTER POLICIES “EVALUATION OF MEASURES FOR PROMOTING CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT IN SLOVENIA”  2004 - 2005  16 clusters, 407 firms and 109 support institutions  240 joint projects (2.944 mio SIT)  60% without gov support

12. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje MAIN FINDINGS  Impacts of clustering are long-term mainly reflected in improved communication and knowledge transfer  Main reason for clustering is improved access to information and knowledge  Main obstacles for clustering lack of trust and limited resources (technical, financial, human)  Clustering is not limited 92 % of clusters cooperate with clusters and other networks from abroad  Cooperation increases benefits of clustering

13. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje COOPERATION INCREASES BENEFITS

14. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje CONCLUSION  Factor in network organisations: collaboration  Enablers of collaboration: trust and common platform TrustCommon platform Geographical, cultural and cognitive proximity ICT technology Socio-cultural embeddednes Policy initiative

15. I nštitut za K onkurenco in S odelovanje © 2004 Inštitut za konkurenco in sodelovanje THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION CONTACT: anja.cotic.svetina@ef.uni-lj.si