Clusters are often generalists or focusing on a specific sub-sector. A cluster consortium pools complimentary expertise, networks, and activities, providing more valuable, internationally relevant and diverse services, which meet the various individual SME needs for scaling-up. Through a consortium, clusters can share contacts, including experts, mentors and peers, who already operate successfully in a certain field, which may be underdeveloped in other regions, to facilitate the access of international SMEs to that specific (sub-)sector.
Access to accessible knowledge for effective coaching. Also taking global developments into consideration, clusters also benefit from sharing their experts with other clusters, e.g. by organising joint international trainings involving SMEs from other cluster regions, or by recommending their own experts for trainings organised in another cluster region.
To scale-up into a different (sub-)sector, SMEs also need coaching about hidden opportunities from experts who are up-to-date with global developments. For this, consortia of clusters with different sub-sector specialisations can facilitate such scale-up trainings, e.g. by providing healthIT seminars for the other clusters.
Demand-orientated cluster consortia are effective coordinators of SME funding programmes, taking the bureaucratic load of the SMEs, making funding better available for SMEs, and bringing together European SMEs with similar and complimenting interests.
Clusters might want to share investors and pitching events. The obvious benefit is the critical mass of potentially interesting SMEs for the investors. However, cluster-investor relations are based on trust with regards to the quality of the pitches and SME technologies, and with regards to confidentiality, so that investors are not overly approached by money-seeking SMEs who are not in their investment focus. Thus, joint pitching events require a careful preparation including pitch training and pre-selection of suitable pitching candidates matching them with the specific interest of each investor.
A cluster consortium can accelerate scaling-up into European markets by each partner providing certain pre-matching or soft-landing packages to the SMEs of the consortium partners’ regions. Since this is timeconsuming, it is crucial to clearly define the scope of such
services according to the specific resources available to each cluster partner. It is also important that each partner benefits from such a cooperation, i.e. that there is interest of SMEs in all partner regions to enter the other markets.
A number of such European market entry schemes and support-initiatives already exists, but they need to be mapped and made simpler to be identified and used.
Clusters often represent their region and industry sectors at international conferences – a luxury, that SMEs can only do in a limited way. Cluster consortia have thus the advantage that they can scout for and select the most beneficial events and fairs, and perhaps even join forces to take a group of European SMEs to such events, or organise scale-up sessions at large conventions.
