CLUSTER INTERNATIONALIZATION – A KEY COMPONENT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVENESS OF CLUSTER MEMBERS

Cluster internationalization can help businesses, especially small and medium enterprises
(SMEs), to improve their competitiveness and accelerate their presence in global value
chains. This point of view is often represented by cluster managers, researchers or politicians.
However, the urgent need for internationalization of cluster enterprises is disproportionate
to the state of understanding of the mechanisms and the effects arising from international
cluster cooperation.
The first part of this article includes a review of the literature which aims to assess the
state of knowledge on the internationalization of clusters and cluster enterprises. Importantly,
a new cluster model has been presented – the so-called "born global" clusters, for which
internationalization is the main strategy of development. The empirical part of the paper
comprises the results of cluster benchmarking in Poland in 2014. Despite the fact that the
results present internationalization as a key area of cluster development, further detailed
analysis of the sub-indices expands this view. To conclude, the theme of cluster and cluster
enterprise internationalization is relatively new and requires further research. The understanding
of the determinants, the mechanisms and the effects of internationalization will allow
to better fit cluster policy and management instruments at the level of regions as well as
the European Union.

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