Internationalisation, Cross-Fertilization, Smart Specialisation

Moderator: Jean-Noël Durvy, Sophia Antipolis Foundation Speakers: Rene Tonisson, Baltic Innovation Agency Peter Simkens, DSP Valley Vedat Kunt, VEGO Consulting Ltd.Izmir Patrick Vuillermoz, French Cluster Plastipolis Ivan Boesso, Veneto Innovazione Peter Hahn, VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH

European CommissionEnterprise and Industry

Accelerating globalisation (1/2)

• According to Global Europe 2050, globalisation will increase in the next decades

• EU represents today around 30% of the world GDP, it would only represent between 15 and 17% of world GDP in 2050

• Fast growing markets are in other parts of the world. Therefore, internationalisation is key for European enterprises and EU economic growth

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European CommissionEnterprise and Industry

Accelerating globalisation (2/2)

• A few reasons for SMEs to become international:

– Technology watch, economic intelligence, benchmarking its competitiveness and positioning on the market

– Exporting on fast growing markets, building technology and commercial partnerships

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European CommissionEnterprise and Industry

Internationalisation is not easy for SMEs

• You can never know enough about your potential partner

• You can never work together with somebody you don’t know

• It takes time to build mutual trust, specially in multi-cultural environment

• SMEs lack time and intermediary structures (like cluster management team) can play a key role to help them becoming international

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European CommissionEnterprise and Industry

Some suggestions

• A favorable environment for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship

• Cluster organisations with a critical size or interclustering

• Interclustering requires consensus: common geographical and thematic targets

• Platforms where potential partners can meet and match

• Matchmaking events with an appropriate and robust technology

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