Cluster definition

What is a cluster?

An industrial cluster is a ecosystem of interconnected businesses, related economic actors, and associated institutions, which benefit from their mutual connections by sharing resources, knowledge, and networks.

Cluster’s members are related by knowledge, skills, inputs, demand, and/or other linkages. As ecosystem, they have reached a sufficient scale to develop specialised expertise, services, resources, suppliers and skills.

• Clusters are not only a concept but a real economic phenomenon with measurable economic effects
• Clusters have a positive impact on regional and industry performance, including job creation, patenting, and new business formation
• Drivers of the agglomeration of economic activity, and thus the creation of clusters, can be input-output linkages, labour market pooling, knowledge spillovers, local demand conditions, specialised institutions, the organisational structure of regional business, and social networks.