Considering lack of benchmarking and observation data, the article analyses issues of technology transfer in Lithuania. Comparison of Lithuanian innovation performance with EU country members is given as well as foreign direct investments in last period. While analysing main technology transfer networks, article explains what problems Lithuanian clusters meet in each model. The main conclusion is that Lithuanian clusters lack experience and investments, also Lithuanian enterprises are mainly small and may not be interested to invest in the development and adoption of technology.

This paper is based on the main findings of the 2012 Egyptian National Innovation Survey, which covered 2022 firms with different manufacturing activities. The main objective of this survey is to try to evaluate the situation in the private firms, with regards innovation. Our findings show that 11.3% of Egyptian firms have at least one type of innovation (productprocessorganizationalmarketing). The innovation activities in firms increase with increasing size of companies in term of persons employed. In the majority of the manufacturing sectors, 1.5 % of innovative firms depend on universities, government, and public research institutions as main sources of information assisting innovation activities.

This study was carried out in order to compare the most successful, in a certain extent, clusters in Lithuania. Benchmarking approach was employed as the most precise technique of data analysis in given conditions. There were several methods employed in a study, such as an interview for the initial stage of data collection, questionnaire survey as well as multi-criteria analysis in later stages and benchmarking for the final stage of the study as to generalize the results. The research has shown that multi-criteria and benchmarking methods are helpful in determining cluster performance. There might be some inaccuracies regarding the results as there were several questions with information not available for the cluster managers. A great number of elements included in the questionnaire survey may have led to some discrepancy. Benchmarking can help companies in cluster to evaluate their performance in comparison to others and seek for better results. The most successful clusters in Lithuania were studied to be a role model. Benchmarking is a practice which can help clusters to measure their performance as there is no systematic evaluation of cluster excellence in Lithuania.

Th e purpose of this study is to review cluster research and the methodology used to achieve the target. Specifi cally, this research explores the methods that are used in research papers aiming at cluster study. Bibliometrical analysis is used depending on an original database, created by the authors, selected after close review. 33 research papers were taken into consideration, published from 1999 to 2014 in international scientifi c journals. Th e fi ndings indicate that case study is used in many articles refering to cluster research. Other methods, such as analysis, interview, survey, research, equation and others are used to support case study. By analyzing the specifi c methods used in cluster research it is aimed at giving clarity to further research on the concept of cluster. It is well known that rather few research papers were analysed from the methodological point of view. However, this research requires a further analysis with a wider scope of scientifi c literature and works related to clusters.

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