Managers’ activities within cultural and creative clusters: an essential element for cluster development in the Visegrád countries

Abstract

Despite the fact that extensive research devoted to cultural and creative industries spatial clustering has been conducted, studies dealing with institutionalised clusters as official entities are rare. Thus creative clusters organisations are weakly theorized compared to industrial clusters due to their project-oriented (non-standardized) production. Consequently, the aim of the paper is to gain insight in benefits of institutionalised cultural and creative clusters and determinants as well as barriers of their development based on cluster managers’ activities in the Visegrád countries. To achieve the stated aim semi-structured interviews with cluster managers were conducted for data collection. Subsequently grounded theory approach and network maps were employed to draw results. Hence, the key benefits for cluster members are reflected in utilizing access to cluster internationalisation activities, knowledge sharing within local creative milieu, and collaborative projects to increase their competitiveness as well as commercialisation of their products. Furthermore, knowledge of cooperation, level of openness, approach to life-long learning, amount of time for cluster activities, previous experience, communication skills, and involvement in mutual cooperation were identified as predominant determinants of cultural and creative cluster development. © 2017 Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) Press Technika.