THEORY OF INNOVATION IN SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE

The situation where European regions will fall behind with regard to defined categories of clusters with relation to their equivalents on the scale of the world economy can become a significant factor in the low competitiveness of the regions in a global economy. This particularly refers to the new EU member countries in which the previous centralized economy system enforced top-down location of entire industrial branches regardless of their possible effectiveness. Cluster and network structures in these countries significantly differ in the level of development and experience in the sphere of increasing competitiveness.