EFFECTIVE REGIONAL CLUSTER: SIGNS, CONDITIONS AND CRITERIA FOR THE FORMATION

Статья посвящена обоснованию методологических подходов к исследованию процессов кластеризации в экономической политике регионов. Поставлена цель выявления условий формирования эффективных кластеров в целях появления позитивных изменений в экономических результатах их деятельности, возникающих за счет появляющихся в кластере синергетических эффектов. Установлена взаимосвязь эффектов с комплексом типовых признаков кластера. Предложен критерий формирования эффективного кластера: максимальный уровень стоимости создаваемого кластерного образования при разных вариантах состава, структуры и условий взаимодействия участников кластера между собой и инициирующими, и координирующими это взаимодействие органами государственного управления. По мнению авторов, это позволит повысить успешность проведения региональной кластерной политики. The article is devoted to the creation of methodological foundations of clustering processes in the economic policy of the regions. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the conditions for the formation of effective clusters for the purpose of positive changes in the economic results of activities that arise due to the synergistic effects that appear in the cluster. The relationship between the effects and the complex of typical features of the cluster is established. The criterion for the formation of an effective cluster is proposed as the maximum level of the cost of the created cluster formation with different variants of the composition, structure and conditions of interaction between the cluster participants and the initiating and coordinating public administration bodies, which will increase the success of the regional cluster policy.

ЗАХОДИ СТИМУЛЮВАННЯ РОЗВИТКУ СИСТЕМ КЛАСТЕРНОГО ПАРТНЕРСТВА В КРАЇНАХ ЄС

The lack of normative regulation for the procedures of creating cluster partnerships in Ukraine, their organizational and legal forms as well as the government support instruments triggers a critical need to explore successful international experience, of the EU countries in particular. The purpose of this article is to provide insights into the best European practices in developing initiatives, programmes and platforms to support cluster partnership schemes. The study employs general scientific research methods, in particular, the method of logical generalization and statistical analysis to investigate the neighbouring countries of Ukraine that were awarded with the ECEI Label by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA). It is emphasized that most European countries have developed and continue to develop and improve their cluster policies and programmes to support their national economy competitiveness and create new jobs. At the level of the European Union, methodology and tools for national innovation development were introduced in the early 1980s. Cluster policy support programmes have been launched since the late 1990s. Currently, to ensure the core principles of the cluster partnership development, the EU policy is focused on improving the environment for the effective cluster operation in all member states, as well as on supporting their internationalization. Although country-specific programmes to enhance cluster partnerships have different priorities and implement a vast range of diverse tools, they all pursue the same goals: they seek to provide appropriate support and meet the needs of all cluster partnership actors along with improving the environment for sustainable national development. Among the analysed programmes and platforms, this paper is focused on the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA) which contributes to the improvement of skills, competencies and practices in cluster management within the cluster partnership framework. The information presented on the ESCA platform demonstrates that currently more than 1100 cluster partnerships from 45 countries have been tested for and / or awarded with the BRONZE quality mark, about 130 gained SILVER and over 100 were awarded with GOLD quality mark. The study also provides cluster analysis of Ukraine's neighbouring countries that quality marks for effective cluster partnership management. Among such countries the leader is Romania – 81 clusters have received quality marks. To date, the European Initiative has recognized three ECEI quality marks as a reliable International Standard for Cluster Partnership Management. The findings reveal that the EU experience in supporting cluster partnerships is relevant for other countries seeking to boost their innovative development, this also refers to Ukraine in particular, where, to a great disappointment, there are yet no legal regulations to support and develop cluster partnerships.

Cost-Effective Cluster-based Energy Efficient Routing for Green Wireless Sensor Network

Background: The green Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have brought a revolution in uplifting the technology efficiently to facilitate human sector in the best possible way. Green Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) tactically focuses on improving the survival period of deployed nodes (as they have limited battery) in any target area. Objectives: To address this concern, the main objective is to improve the routing in WSN. The cluster-based routing helps in acquiring the same with the appropriate Cluster Head (CH) selection. The use of energy heterogeneous nodes that normally comprise of high energy nodes, puts a lot of financial burden on the users as they incur a huge cost and becomes a bottleneck for the growth of green WSN. So, another objective is to reduce this cost involved in the network. Method: In order to pact with it, a cost-effective routing protocol is proposed that introduces energy efficient CH selection by incorporating parameters namely, node density, residual energy, total energy of network and distance factor. Thus, the proposed protocol is termed as Cost-Effective Cluster-based Routing Protocol (CECRP) as it performs remarkably better with only two energy level nodes as compared to state-of-the-art protocols with three levels nodes. Results and Conclusion: It can be encapsulated from the simulation results that CECRP outperforms TEDRP, SEECP and DRESEP protocols on different performance metrics. Furthermore, it is comprehended from the simulation results that CECRP proves to be 33.33% more cost-effective as compared to the aforementioned protocols, hence CERCP favors the green WSN.