Comparison of the significance of clusters for increasing business performance

Abstract

This article focuses on the impact of clusters on performance in five selected industries. Focused on increasing the competitiveness of regions and enterprises, clusters are currently considered one of the most essential tools of industrial policy. This includes the Czech Republic, where cluster initiatives have been systematically supported since 2004 by operational programmes. The goal of this research was to determine whether cluster organizations have a positive effect on the performance of their member enterprises in various industries. Another goal was to verify the relation between the financial and innovative performance of the member enterprises. The research was carried out on a sample of five clusters in the automotive, IT, furnituremanufacturing, packaging and machinery industries, with Data Envelopment Analysis used for this performance evaluation. The enterprises were divided into three groups: companies that are members of cluster organizations, companies that are active in the same region and industry but are not members of a cluster group, and companies from the respective industry that operate outside the region of the given cluster. The results of the study indicate that in four industries (automotive, IT, packaging, machinery), member companies of cluster organizations achieve better results than non-members or firms active in other regions. On the other hand, it was not possible to prove a positive relation between company performance and their registered industrial rights, neither from the perspective of cluster membership nor their activity in the respective industry and region.