Industrial Clusters: Concepts and Empirical Evidence from East-Central Europe

Industry clusters (ICs) have attracted much attention in the recent past. Besides the ever-growing academic interest, ICs have become primary targets of development policy, similarly to foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction and the development of local linkages (for example, supplier networks) of foreign investment enterprises (FIEs). Both structures, ICs and widespread supplier networks, have common features. Most importantly, both need a sufficient number of potential collaborators. Both can be developed most successfully in regions where economic activity is vivid and enterprising and cooperation has traditions. It is therefore of special interest to learn what should and could be the relationship between the two cooperation systems, what are their common features, and what are the differences. These are the issues examined in this paper, both from theoretical and empirical points of view, this latter based on the example of the Hungarian and other CEE economies’ experience.