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Fomina Elizaveta Vasilivna, A Postgraduate Student of the Department of International Economic Relations, the Faculty of International Economic Relations and Tourist Business, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. E-mail: [email protected]
Cluster approach to the economy intellectualization
Abstract: our article defines the relationships between intellectualization and clustering of the modern economy and considers the influence of the cluster approach to the production, distribution and use of knowledge in the economy, taking innovative clusters as a model. Keywords: knowledge-based economy, clusters, innovations.
Intensive intellectualization of the economic activity has become a hallmark of social progress in late 20th and early 21st century, as it provides, spreads and employs the new knowledge to ensure its growth and competitiveness.
As one can see from the practice of the most successful companies and leading countries of the world, clusters, and in the first place the innovative ones, become an important instrument for the development of competitiveness and intellectualization of the economy. Such clusters (usually of global reach) are fairly easy to identify: computer software (Silicon Valley, Bangalore), optical equipment (Tokyo), mobile communication (Stockholm and Helsinki), biotechnology, vital processes and medical instruments (Boston's Route 128, BioValley 21, Medicon Valley 22), cars (Detroit, Toyota City, Wolfsburg et al.). Each of the clusters has a lot of participants, for example, the Medicon Valley Cluster (Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden) includes seven scientific parks and it is focused on the worldwide level research in natural sciences. Medicon Valley embraces hospitals, universities, state research institutes, enterprises and investors [1, 35-44].
European countries have started a cluster-based development strategy for the obvious benefits of intellectualization of their economy already in the mid-nineties. The "cluster policy" concept is to be regarded as "the system of state and public measures and mechanisms in the support of clusters and cluster initiatives that enhance the competitiveness of regions, enterprises belonging to the cluster, as well as the development of institutions, promoting formation of clusters and providing introduction of innovations" [2].
In the EU, the regions with the greatest readiness to the use of new innovative technologies are mainly in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Northern Germany. The lowest rates of readiness
have been recorded in the regions of Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia, in some parts of Croatia and Poland.
Indicators of innovation activity include the use of patents, knowledge of workers, scientific publications, human resources in science and technologies as well as availability of high-tech clusters. Their level is especially high in the regions of Finland, Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Ireland, and Luxembourg [3].
The most famous European cluster which operates in eastern France is Plastic Valley. Enterprises, included in the cluster, transform polymers into the finished products, they are also involved in designing goods, developing new forms, and introduction of new techniques. The cluster has more than 1 million of employees.
According to data of the economic study, about 28% of enterprises in the EU have acknowledged their belonging to clusters. In the latest 10 countries that have been included in the EU, the part of such enterprises averages only 9%. More than 67% of Lithuanian enterprises are amalgamated in the clusters; the highest level of clustering has been recorded in the UK, where 8 of10 enterprises on an average belong to clusters [4].
In the experts' opinion, the most appreciable advantage of a cluster enterprise is that it has the possibility to invite highly skilled employees and exchange market information with its partners. It is considered that the presence in a cluster stimulates businessman's spirit, facilitates organizing contacts to implement the conceived projects, and has a high innovative potential.
However, in order that the manufacturers can use new ideas, have a quick access to knowledge and innovations, it is necessary to have a functioning research cluster. In this aspect, it is important that the latter is a collection of scientific institutions, enterprises, regional authorities as well as auxiliary centers to promote in-
Cluster approach to the economy intellectualization
novative and employer's activity, working together for a particular field of science, engineering or economics.
World practice shows that in recent years the cluster formation process is also very active in the US and in India. The US pays great attention to the establishment of a network of centers on the basis of universities to provide technologies and support interactions between large and small companies, universities, and financial structures, relying on cluster strategies. Finland has an interministerial program of cluster investigations. Some European countries also have national cluster-based programs.
An urgent need to maintain and ensure the development of research clusters has been confirmed by a series of arguments, namely:
- innovativeness of the economy depends not only on the effectiveness of manufactures and research institutions activity, but, above all, how they cooperate with each other and with the public administration;
- innovations are the consequence of the long-term relationships between experts, enterprises and organizations, resulting in creating the new knowledge, goods or services;
- geographic proximity of the subjects of innovative activity contributes to the formation, apprehension and use of knowledge and to designing an effective innovation system.
In the economic science the first comprehension of the cluster approach to the development of production is associated with the name of A. Marshall [5, 352-355]. As far back as the end of the 19th century, the prominent economist has pointed out the advantages of concentration in some regions of specialized enterprises, which contribute now to the intellectualization of the economic activity. Among these advantages are hereditary skills, development of supporting industries, the use of highly specialized machinery, permanent local market of skilled labor as well as the free exchange of ideas.
Subsequently, to designate regional and local aspects of economic activity M. Porter has offered the term "cluster". According to M. Porter, cluster is a group of "geographically close interconnected companies and related organizations, operating in a particular field, which is characterized by common activities" [6, 258]. M. Porter has also justly noted that stronger preferences for innovations occur in the cluster because the firms within a cluster learn more quickly about advances in the technologies, new products and equipment, and new concepts. Clusters of the kind are called innovative. They are formed and developed in the knowledge- intensive and science-comprising sectors of economics: information and communication technologies (hereinafter ICT),
biotechnologies, technologies of the new materials, and in service sectors, related to creative activities.
Innovative clusters of the post-industrial age are the ecosystems of stable cross-links, produced in the form of the triple helices (clusters of Scandinavia, Switzerland, a number of well-known cluster networks in the US, some of the clusters in South-East Asia). They enter into global chains, have coordinating network units, build cooperation on mutually beneficial contracts and collectively generate interactive innovations. Exactly this model achieves a dynamic self-development, successfully completing the functional cluster task — to become a pole of growth for the dislocation region. Thus, in the countries of Scandinavia only agglomerations with a triple helix system are considered to be innovative, and they can be treated both the latest sectors (biotechnology) and traditional ones (timber industry). The nature of interactions in the cluster is of utmost importance as it must lead to superfast development of new products, basing on ever-changing demands of the consumers.
Innovative clusters play a particular role in the in-tellectualization of the economy as an organized and stable system of creation, spreading and introduction of the new knowledge and technologies is formed on their basis. The report of the UN Economic Commission for Europe «Improving the innovative effectiveness of the firms: policy options and practical instruments» proposes its definition of an innovative cluster as « a system of close links between firms and their suppliers, customers and research institutions, resulting in the generation of innovations» [7, 105-106]. A new product or service in the system are the outcome of the efforts of several companies and research organizations owing to the innovative cluster distinctive characters, namely: geographic concentration, specialization, plurality of participants, competition and cooperation, critical mass, long -term life cycle and innovativeness.
Innovative clusters are the implementation of the «open innovations» concept in practice, the basic idea of which is the principle of their concentration in the dynamic environment, where competent organizations and skilled workers, manufacturers and suppliers interact, intensive partnerships are formed, and universities are actively involved in the process of scientific and technological information exchange. An example of accelerating the results and spreading of the new technologies as well as promoting the idea of «open innovations» is Philips Electronic Company (Netherlands), which has transformed Philips research laboratories (where the Company was the only user) in the High Tech Campus
by drawing not only their partners, but also their com- ment to reduce transaction expenditures, increase flex-
petitors (e. g. IBM) into creation of the research facilities ibility, establish communication links and increase infor-
of their own [8, 109-123]. mation flows. [9, 210].
Thus, the success of innovative clusters is caused The considered trends corroborate the conclusion by interaction of the three forces (the «triple helix» that clusters ensure the exchange of knowledge, stimu-concept): academic centers (universities), manufactur- lating their innovative activity. In other words, presenting and risk capital (business) as well as innovative policy day clusters are not only an economic agglomeration, of the state. The university is a source of knowledge and whose occurrence is caused by the desire to minimize technology, the role of business is formed in the process expenditures and get closer to the markets, but also of production, and the government is the guarantor of an effective innovative environment that enables their stable interactions and favorable conditions. Clusters companies and organizations to become more efficient, of interacting companies form an integration environ- knowledge-intensive and science-comprising.
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