Cluster policies and initiatives within the service sector - good practices from EU countries and recommendation for the Czech cluster policy

Abstract

The concept of clusters and clustering has recently gained enormous popularity among policy-makers, practitioners and academics, a fact reflected by the growing number of policies and initiatives in support of clusters. This article focuses on cluster policies and initiatives within the service sector. The main objective of the article is to present good practices of cluster initiatives within the service sector and to propose recommendation for the Czech cluster policy in the field of services. The article describes cluster policy and identifies two common approaches: top-down and bottom-up. It then presents European examples of good practices of developing the service sector through cluster initiatives: Service Cluster Denmark (national-wide) and initiatives within the Region of North Central Sweden (regional-wide). Based on case studies and other examples of initiatives in EU countries, recommendations are made for the cluster policy in the Czech service sector.