THE ADVANTAGES OF IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS NETWORKING AND CLUSTERS IN ROMANIA

In the current economic context of the transition to knowledge economy, companies are faced with a situation where they have to become increasingly more flexible, have as much knowledge generating value as possible, to be more and more innovative and increasingly more competitive, due to the fact that the economic environment is in a constant change and evolution. Also, given the fact that in the entire world and especially in the European Union, small and medium enterprises are the main providers of employment and GDP (something that we can see becoming a fact in Romania as well) and also because these businesses, most often, don not have the resources of the big companies, we can say that they can not compete as well (on internal or international level); hence, the importance of linking these enterprises in business networking and clusters. Clusters are considered by many experts as vectors of innovation and as a source for competitiveness. Therefore, it is why I considered that, the subject of business networks and clusters in Romania is of current and relevant matter, its importance being underlined by the fact that Romania, the concept of clusters is not yet well known and well used. In the same measure, the implementation of clusters presents some advantages that could be beneficial for Romania in terms of improving economic, technologic and scientific performance (which is currently low compared to that of other countries in the European Union). The object of this study is to create a basis for information, knowledge and awareness of the cluster concept and its importance.