Cluster Associations as a Factor of Innovative and Integrative Development of the Economy

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the motivational preferences of the cluster formation participants, as well as to determine the influence of clusters on the enterprise's performance and socio-economic development of regions. Based on the study of the preferences of the creation and functioning of the clusters, it has been revealed that cluster formations allow each of the participants to benefit from the synergy effect arising in the course of combining efforts for the sake of production scaling. The obtained results show that cluster formations are characterized by an emphasis on increasing employee satisfaction due to the integration of motivational preferences of the cluster association participants (production, financial, marketing, innovative, personnel, socio-psychological, environmental, and other preferences) and the formation of qualitatively new opportunities for the implementation of corporate and personal needs of employees. The assessment of the possibilities of forming clusters made it possible to identify the most important factors, such as the development of entrepreneurial culture, which in turn affected the formation of the enterprise’s image, the trust of communities, the implementation of innovations, and access to new markets. Based on the conducted study, the authors have determined the formation mechanism of cluster associations, which includes economic, organizational, social, and environmental components.