Arkadiusz Michał Kowalski

The Impact of Industrial Clusters on the Innovativeness of Business Firms in Poland

The paper focuses on the concept of clusters, which have become an important element of innovation systems at the regional and national level. After joining the European Union in 2004, the process of dynamic creation of cluster initiatives in Poland has started, both in traditional and modern sectors. The aim of the research is to verify the hypothesis that cluster membership impacts the level of innovativeness of the enterprises. The possible explanation is that clustering stimulates co-operation between companies, as well as between business and science, encourages knowledge flows, information exchange, technology transfer, and learning processes, as well as contributes to the development of relational capital and trust. The evidence collected in 2012 from 350 firms belonging to cluster initiatives shows that industrial clusters play a positive, but limited role in influencing the innovativeness of business activity. The limitation factors may be attributed to the initial stage of clustering in Poland and relatively low level of innovativeness of its economy. Nevertheless, clusters positively influence implementation of new solutions by Polish firms, especially non-technological innovations.

Human Capital and Innovation—Basic Concepts, Measures, and Interdependencies

With the acceleration of globalization processes, human capital stock and quality as well as invention and innovations have become particularly important. The greater mobility of capital on an international scale has led to a situation in which its allocation in a given country is increasingly determined by the quality of labor, in addition to such aspects as the price of labor, the tax system, and the quality of physical infrastructure and institutions. There are a few reasons for this. Production departments based on low-qualified labor force have been moved to areas where the labor costs are the lowest. The competition between the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries and the dynamically developing countries, such as Chile, India, or Brazil, starts to concern the location of the technologically advanced production as well as allocation of research and development (R&D) works and R&D centers. The important elements of that competition are people, their knowledge, creativity, and the ability to convert these resources into innovation. For that reason, as the analysis of various theoretical approaches set out in the preceding section indicates, human capital and innovation are becoming increasingly critical for shaping the competitive advantage of countries and boosting benefits achieved in international exchange. The model approach to that kind of correlation as well as the empirical verification of its direction and strength requires supplementation of previous theoretical deliberations regarding the nature of international competitiveness with selected theoretical strands relating to human capital and innovation. This section is thus an attempt to integrate terms such as human capital and innovation based on the concept of innovation systems, as well as to present and select measures adequate for analyzing these complex and overlapping phenomena.

International Competitiveness of Countries with Dynamic Innovation Systems

The group of countries known for their dynamic innovation systems includes five European countries (Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, and Sweden) as well as Singapore—a small and very competitive Asian country. Dynamic innovation systems are characterized by a high innovative ability and an innovation position above average. The typical qualities of their functioning are a drive to develop knowledge and human capital resources, significant internationalization of business and research and development (R&D) sphere, high flexibility of institutions, as well as dynamic network connections between main entities of the innovation system. Within the group of a dynamic national innovation system (NIS), it is possible to distinguish two different approaches toward using those strengths in order to develop competitiveness. Finland and Switzerland focus on using and developing their own resources mainly on the basis of the internal factors, while treating the internationalization as an accompanying element. A similar approach can be observed in Switzerland, a country ranked among the most competitive economies but not a member of the European Union (EU). By contrast, Ireland and Singapore place emphasis on internationalization as the main factor of the development of internal resources.