Clusters are individuals - VDI/VDE-IT

Age
Share of clusters
having initiated many
successful co-operations
Share of clusters with
highly assured financing
150
125
100
75
Percentage of
median value (%)
Share of highly
specialised clusters
Impact
on internationalisation
activities of SME
150
125
100
75
Percentage of
median value (%)
Share of clusters
with high appearance
in press / public
Private
financing rate
50
25
0
Numbers of
members
50
25
0
Share of clusters
with highly clarity
of tasks & roles
Share of cluster
members within
150 km
Impact on business
activities of SME
Impact on R&D
activities of SME
Share of clusters
with highly centralised
governance structure
Share of clusters having
a dedicated of legal form
Impact on R&D
activities on research
institutions
Median value
R&D driven clusters
Industrial driven clusters
Median value
R&D driven clusters
Industrial driven clusters
Figure 8: Comparison of R&D- and industry-driven clusters in terms of
structural factors
Figure 9: Comparison of R&D- and industry-driven clusters in terms of
output and impact
Although research-driven and industry-driven clusters are
similar in terms of structural factors, they are different in
terms of output and impact (see Figure 9). While both types
of clusters are rather similar when it comes to the initiation
of successful cooperation, they are very much different when
it comes to the impact on cluster members. Industry-driven
clusters have a bigger impact on R&D activities and business
activities of SME than R&D-driven clusters have. In contrast,
the impact on R&D activities of research institutions is bigger
in R&D-driven clusters. This implies that the specific impact
of a cluster on business or R&D activities of its members
depends on the agenda setter: if companies set the agenda
they benefit more, if research institutions or universities set
the agenda they benefit more.
Research-driven clusters show much lesser impact on business
activities of SME than industry-driven clusters, while the
difference is a little bit smaller when it comes to the impact
on R&D activities. This can be explained by the specific focus
of companies in research-driven clusters on product development.
Companies in biotechnology clusters for example
spend a lot of efforts on the development of drugs and less
on sales and marketing because they first have to develop a
product that meets pharmaceutical or other standards before
they can market it. Often less attention is therefore paid
to sales and marketing issues.
The rather similar performance of both types of clusters in
terms of their impact on internationalization activities of SME
can be explained by the specific nature of research-driven
clusters. Their company members often put less emphasis
on sales and marketing than on product development which
they often do in the context of international collaborations.
Again, the biotechnology sector is a very good example for
this pattern. Clusters in this area are typically research-driven
and their SME members typically either collaborate with international
partners in R&D projects or do contract research
for large pharmaceutical corporations that are headquartered
abroad, e.g. in Switzerland. Data from the benchmarking
backs this hypothesis, which can be developed also for other
sectors such as micro, nano and optic or energy and envi-
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