Correlation between the state of cluster development and national competitiveness in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum 2012-2013

This paper explores the correlation between state of cluster development in a country and its national competitiveness. Our research hypothesis is that high positive correlation exists between cluster development and national competiveness, meaning that the countries in which clusters are deep and well-developed are at the same time countries that have a high national competitiveness in certain segments of industry and vice versa. The source of the data analysed in this paper is the Competitiveness report of the World Economic Forum 2012-2013 (hereinafter WEF), which includes 144 economies. Linear correlation, including confidence intervals, was used in data analysis. Research hypothesis is accepted by the data. Developing countries cannot follow the direction from building high competitiveness to the development of clusters, but national competitiveness can significantly be improved by development of clusters and encouraging innovation and productivity within the framework of cluster-directed economy.