INNOVATIVE CLUSTERS AS A KEY ENGINE FOR A LONGRUN SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of the innovative clusters mostly for the local communities such as smart and creative communities/cities. The first part of the paper is dedicated to a brief literature review in order to create the necessary conditions for debating the topic. Given the fact that the role of the innovative clusters is to create a sustainable competitive advantage, enhancing the competitiveness and the level of productivity and profitability, our goal is to identify the most relevant and defining characteristics. In the second part of the paper, we focus on the level of development of the urban areas in order to identify the most important regional innovative clusters in Romania. The focus will be on geographical and structural analysis of the selected clusters. In the third part, we continue with a more detailed analysis of the innovative clusters in order to create a successful “recipe”. The purpose of this “recipe” is to contribute to urban areas, but also to the rural areas development, which aims at enhancement of the quality and performance. Innovative clusters support start-up companies and help the existing ones to develop, by reducing input costs and increasing the sales market, through the opportunities for innovation that they offer. They also allow the companies to use local resources in order to develop their business rapidly and to gain a long-run competitive advantage.