Benchmarking competitiveness and innovation performances in two information technology clusters from Finland and Turkey

Although clusters have been identified as influential mechanisms to drive knowledge-based innovations, there have not been many attempts to evaluate their competitiveness and explore the link between competitiveness and innovation performance. This study takes a novel approach and develops an assessment scheme to operationalize the emerald model for benchmarking competitiveness of two information technology (IT) clusters from Finland and Turkey. Despite that the cluster in Finland is more competitive in the dimensions of R&D and innovation attractiveness, ownership attractiveness, and environmental attractiveness, the innovation performances of the two clusters are surprisingly equal. This preliminary exploratory study suggests that environmental attractiveness is not a significant dimension of competitiveness for promoting innovation performance. Further research is needed to understand which of the other dimensions of competitiveness are more influential in driving innovation performance in clusters