Internationalization of cluster initiatives in Russia: empirical evidence

Abstract

In the last few years, Russia has supported the establishment of cluster initiatives to strengthen economic development, open channels for knowledge transfer, raise the national technology base, and integrate domestic manufacturing more prominently into global value chains. This paper studies 25 pilot cluster initiatives which received financial support within the national programme. The analysis shows that privately funded initiatives tend to use the cluster format as an efficient way to organize economic activities. Publicly funded cluster initiatives, in contrast, are more likely to engage in R&D partnerships with institutes in technologically advanced regions, such as Western Europe or South-East Asia, and thereby act as transfer channels to strengthen the region’s technology base. Also, industries that build on analytical knowledge are more likely to engage in partnerships than industries that use local and tacit knowledge. Still, the cluster management organizations struggle greatly to appoint adequately skilled staff and to cope with limited financial resources, as these are the biggest barriers for cluster internationalization, while cultural differences and geographical distance were of much less importance.

Keywords:

• Regional development
• cluster initiatives
• cluster management
• internationalization
• Russia

Acknowledgements

The article was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and supported within the framework of a subsidy by the Russian Academic Excellence Project ‘5-100’.

Notes

1. Age, number of members, management model and cluster manager or CMO functions.

2. Covering areas, such as international activity of cluster members and CMOs, internationalization strategy, geographical scope, key partners and areas of cooperation, decision-making and management within the internationalization process framework, barriers to international cooperation, goals and ambitions to go global.

3. For an overview of such born-globals in Russia see Thurner, Gershman, and Roud (2015).

4. The ‘Kamsk’ cluster, though, is mainly internationally connected through their high value of exports.