Cluster Regional Development Policy: Resources and Institutional Conditions

Abstract:

Clustering, being one of the key factors for increasing competitiveness, promotes the development of relations between enterprises and the intensive growth of the regions involved. The evaluation of regional clusters efficiency is regarded as an insufficiently studied problem, which is connected with the complexity of the region as an economic system as such. In this paper, various approaches to the analysis of clusters and their role in industrial and socio-economic development strategies, theoretical and methodological aspects of the formation of clusters are considered. Clusters develop at a slow pace: the most successful clusters have a history of stretching back for several decades. The specifics of Russian clusters, many of which were created on the basis of former territorial industrial complexes and direct distributions, must be taken into account. Quite a few similar structures have a fairly formal nature of mutually beneficial relationships. In this sense, the main focus is drawn to the project approach, which is often understood incomprehensively. A wide range of qualitative characteristics of projects is not taken into account that can be of decisive importance. Underestimation of significant factors leads to errors in the evaluation of financial efficiency indicators and in the choice of methods for evaluating innovative projects. In this case, government support measures will be constantly subsidized, which does not accord with the characteristics that determine the benefits of cluster development. The considered approaches put special emphasis on collecting expert assessments; therefore, the analysis of the economic efficiency can be supplemented in regard to the interrelations of expert information and financial model indicators, the initial stage of which is presented in this paper.

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