Features of assessing the competitiveness of innovative regional clusters: an institutional approach

This article is dedicated to the problems of building regional innovation clusters that have an impact on socio-economic regional development. The paper proposes an institutional approach to defining a regional cluster as a specific form of territorial market formation of independent organizations operating in the market of monopolistic competition. According to the concept proposed in the study, the basis for the formation of the regional cluster competitiveness is the system of infrastructure links which connects the specific assets of independent companies forming the cluster. At the same time, the innovative component of the specific assets owned by independent organizations participating in the construction of the cluster indicates its innovative nature. A feature of the innovation cluster is that the enterprises in the cluster can innovation rent, which determines the potential of their competitiveness in the long term. The study revealed that the strengthening of infrastructural ties in the conditions of mutually beneficial cooperation is due to different types of synergetic effects that allow the subjects of cluster construction to form infrastructure rent and to extract monopoly profits. Public authorities and the population of the region are active subjects of the institutional environment of regional development, with the construction of the cluster greatly affecting the region’s. Successful construction of the cluster is essentially a tool to improve regional competitiveness. In view of this, the cluster’s competitiveness cannot be assessed out without taking into account its impact on the level of regional development, and the welfare of the region’s population, which is what makes the goals of this study relevant. From the institutional point of view, the study refines the definition of the innovative regional cluster. The revealed features of assessing the competitiveness of the regional innovation cluster allow to more accurately take into account the impact of cluster construction on the sustainability of regional socio-economic development. Directions for further research may include development of systemic (institutional) criteria for assessing the competitiveness of the regional innovation cluster, namely, describing these specific criteria in the system of quantitative indicators comparable in dynamics and in comparison with other regions.