Cross-border Collaboration: Enabling Cross-border Clusters to Support Innovation

The goal of this research was to investigate the characteristics that enable cross-border collaboration initiatives to develop into cross-border clusters that support smart specialisation strategies. The research focuses on how to remove barriers to traditional collaboration and promote company adherence to smart specialization plans. The analysis is based on a cross-border cluster development project in the Nouvelle Aquitaine-Basque Country-Navarre cross-border area (NAEN). We identified six critical capacities that cross-border collaboration projects must pursue to support the emergence of cross-border clusters. This was done by combining lessons learnt from the case study with theoretical contributions from the literature on territorial competitiveness, clusters, and cooperation.