FINANCING CLUSTERS FROM PUBLIC FUNDS IN THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
FINANCING CLUSTERS FROM PUBLIC FUNDS IN THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Summary/Abstract: Supporting and financing geographically concentrated industrial clusters became an object of public regional policies as the positive effects raising from spillover of knowledge among the clustered firms and institutions is believed to supporting growth of regional economies. An interesting dimension of the industrial cluster financing is a mode of private and public funds combination that might present a major factor in the success of a cluster. The approach in this paper states research hypotheses on the relation between the share of public funds and innovative performance level of a particular country as well as the length of its EU membership. The empirical investigation is based on an extensive primary research of 125 clusters in 25 European countries. Unexpectedly, the survey has proved significantly higher use of public funds for cluster activities in the countries of innovation leaders and innovation followers (as divided in The Innovation Union Scoreboard 2013), at all national, regional and local levels. Hence, strong financial support of clusters is not prevalently a subject of structural aid to less developed regional economies, but a regular measure in well developed countries with higher innovation performance. Statistically significant differences have been observed also in the structure of financing clusters when comparing old or EFTA countries with new member countries. The paper was elaborated within the project VEGA 1/0506/13.

• Details
• Contents