Clusters as a tool improve company´s competitiveness

Clusters in the Czech Republic are in relative early stage of their development. Most of them were established with strong support and subsidies from special operational programme „Clus- ters“ in the period 2004-2006. The paper contributes to the discussion concerning on clusters as a „tool“ to enhance com- panies ́ competitiveness. It provides results from literature review and some conclusions from a survey among cluster managers from clusters in the Czech Republic (20 Czech clusters were involved in the investigation) and also abroad (a total of 46 clusters from the entire world participa- ted and European clusters represented the largest section). As for the line of business, the largest number represented were clusters from the processing industry - 55 %. Approximately half of the clusters in the sample were involved in the „traditional“ business fields, second half in the „new“ fields. This research has identified current areas of joint actions and manners for managing clusters. Based on the questionnaires and interviews with cluster managers the research compares: • goals and objectives of involved clusters • approaches to cluster management • legal forms of clusters • level of collaboration with scientific and educational institutions • preferences for joint activities in the field of networking, human resource, research and inno- vation, business cooperation and promotion, lobbying and support activities • and other aspects Comparing results among Czech clusters and foreign clusters (which are more mature on the average) we can anticipate (and suggest) for Czech clusters the shift from stage of business col- laboration and promotional activities towards the collaborative joint projects in the area of human resources development, research and innovation. Those activities can improve competitiveness of all cluster participants through common sharing of „hard“ and personal infrastructure including proactive involvement of research and educational institutions