Clusters are a group of businesses, generally in the same economic sector, which share experiences, good practices and act jointly to achieve the most favourable competitive framework for developing their activities.
Clusters are based on innovation and cooperation, and the key to their success is achieving a critical mass of resources in the geographical area where they have set up. In this way, three-way collaboration is usually very important:
- businesses
- universities and
- regional/local authorities
Most EU member states are presently developing and implementing cluster policies on both a national and regional level as part of their policy to respond to Lisbon Strategy objectives.
The European Cluster Observatory has calculated that 38% of European workers work at companies which are part of a cluster. In turn, it has identified over 2,000 regional clusters in 258 analysed regions. Source: Report on EU cluster policy (March 2008)
. Why a cluster
. Cluster examples in the USA
. Cluster examples in Europe
. Cluster examples in Spain