Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field. Clusters encompass an array of linked industries and other entities important to competition. Clusters also often extend downstream to channels and customers and laterally to manufacturers of complementary products and to companies in industries related by skills, technologies, or common inputs. Finally, many clusters include governmental and other institutions-such as universities, standards setting agencies, think tanks, vocational training providers, and trade associations-that provide specialized training, education, information, research and technical support.*

Together with globalization, cooperation of business clusters located in different areas and countries increase rapidly in today’s competitive environment. Thanks to the collaboration between clusters, several endeavors are undertaken including commercial cooperation and project partnerships. In addition, the cooperation and the synergy developed accelerate the innovation process, as well.

Clustering is very effective in fostering and sustaining competition, as they increase the production capacities of the companies in the cluster, improve innovation and create new business areas. Thus, the concept of clustering is extremely important for especially small- and medium-scale enterprises with low market shares. Technological partnerships, wide labor pools and cooperation brought about with clustering provide an opportunity for the development of these enterprises and for increasing their market shares.