Clusters: Distinctive Features and Implementation Mechanism in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Despite the great popularity that clusters have gained both as an object of theoretical inquiry and a practical territorial development instrument, in practice no common opinion can be found as to what entities are to be considered clusters, which leads to problems in formulating regional development strategies based on cluster initiatives. The purpose of this article is to reveal distinctive features of clusters and determine whether those territorial economic entities that are being actively implemented in Russia today may be referred to as clusters. Our analysis work made it possible to ascertain that clusters as networked (hybrid) entities have important distinctive features. The key of which we believe, along with the local base of formation, is to be considered the fact that being comprised of organizations of different types, they do not provide a single mechanism to coordinate interaction. Instead, a wide variety of partnerships are formed, which through interacting with each other become the cluster's basis. Study of the territorial entities originating in Russia shows that they cannot be referred to as clusters, mainly because of the administratively voluntaristic mechanism of their formation.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s3p186