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Mgr Piotr Wojciechowski
ORCID: 0000-0003-4359-8447

Managing Director of the Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster Tool Valley of the Polish Cluster Association, member of the Cluster Council at Polish Cluster's Association. He is involved in mold and plastics processing industry. Responsible for the implementation of projects in the area of promotion, international cooperation, education and R&D, including Industry 4.0 and the Circular Economy. He prepared and implemented many regional, national and international projects co-financed from EU programs (including POIR, EUREKA, COSME, H2020). He has experience in the area of innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization. Member of supervisory boards and the investment council at several universities. An expert in the field of national and regional smart specializations and project evaluation in the field of innovation and commercialization. He has 10 years of experience in cluster development and management, member of Cluster Excellence Expert Group in European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis. A graduate of numerous trainings and postgraduate studies in the field of management, finance, marketing and economic law.

 
DOI: 10.33226/1231-7853.2025.5.5
JEL: K10; M31

The main aim of this article is to present and discuss the results of benchmarking research on Polish clusters in terms of the organizational and legal forms of their coordinators. These studies have been conducted systematically by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development since 2010. Six editions of benchmarking studies conducted in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020 and 2022 were subjected to comparative analysis. It allowed to identify the types of organizational and legal forms used by cluster coordinators in Poland, their diversity, and to show how the situation has changed over the years. There is no cluster institution in the Polish legal system. Cluster coordinators operate based on various legal forms. Over the past years, the dominant forms have been associations, foundations and commercial law companies – mainly limited liability companies. and joint-stock companies. Although individual analyses of the discussed scope can be found in the literature on the subject, they have not been conducted so far in such a comprehensive manner, covering nearly 15 years. The results of the work will constitute a starting point for further research related to the formal and legal aspect of cluster activities in Poland and the area of membership in cluster organizations.

Keywords: cluster; cluster organization; clusters in Poland; benchmarking