Impact of cluster policies on structure and management of cluster organisations in Czechia and Slovakia

Evaluation of an impact of cluster policies on cluster organisation performance is a research challenge. The establishment and development of cluster organisations (hereafter "COs") are the result of many factors which work together over time. Second, some COs are results of national or regional government initiatives, while others emerge spontaneously without public support. This paper presents a development of cluster policies and current stage of COs in Czechia and in Slovakia in terms of different approaches to cluster policy. The lack of convincing arguments for positive impact of public support on COs development in previous research and published studies was a reason for selection of these countries as they shared the same history as former members of Czechoslovakia (dissolution in 1993) and a lot of political, socio-economic and cultural similarities. In spite of their common historical development, the distinct differences in the way of establishing and developing cluster concept can be identified. For the comparison of the current stage of COs in these two countries, the secondary data for analysis of cluster strategies, documents, programmes and implementing bodies of public support were analysed, and primary data obtained from managers of COs using structured interviews was gathered, analysed and compared. From December 2015 to August 2016 research in more than 130 COs was carried out and then evaluated. Research findings confirmed that cluster policies are implemented in both examined countries in a different way what is manifested in different results in a number of COs, their structural characteristics and management level. Example of Czechia with strong and long-term public support shows that implementation of cluster-based policy plays an important role in evolving the cluster concept in the country, while evidence from Slovakia with weak support for cluster initiatives and COs’ establishment and development confirms, that inadequate governance and financial framework for the COs-related support in Slovakia did not bring a comparable level of COs development measured by structural characteristics and management quality as is in Czechia. © 2017, Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest. All rights reserved