Strategic Business Alliances: Qualitative Analysis of Specific Factors of Business Clusters

Global corporations and companies with international portfolios increasingly concentrate their activities not only on the international expansion of their products or services and global diversifi cation of their capital portfolios, but also on an effective integration in the global value chain in all areas of their activities. This article focuses on the specific analysis of strategic business alliances, which are built on the principles of cluster organization in order to obtain higher synergic effects. This analysis is based on the intensive literature review and several case studies of an organization of different clusters with various specialisations in different areas. The main objective of the analysis is to determine clearly the characterisation and taxonomy of clusters, specific reasons for establishing/running a cluster, and the main advantages and risks of these structures in the global business environment.