Industrial clusters and innovative networks became very important instruments of contemporary political economy as well as innovation policy. Especially during the period of current global crisis we can observe the growing tendency to business cooperation on regional level. The paper contains the model of development of industrial cluster, defining the stages of the cluster development as well as the typical crises corresponding to the development stages. The main goal of the article is presenting the model of the cluster creation process, the crises of cluster initiative which can appear and the recommendation for tempering of their effects. The model will be used to analysis of chosen clusters in Poland which are on the different stage of development. The practical approach of the model was based on observations and empirical studies that taken place in clusters in Poland – there is a part of researches, which are realized in project: The models of cluster management financed by Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
