Abstract:

This article attempts to assess the feasibility qualitative comparative analysis (Qualitative Comparative Analysis - QCA) to study the behavior of cooperative organizations associated in clusters education. This concept was presented as an alternative, innovative and standing in opposition to the comparative analysis, which is used previously to study the clusters. The legitimacy of this method, its capabilities and potential by the results of empirical research conducted in educational clusters located on Polish territory. They were analyzed for various types of cooperative relations. Results of this study indicate that the QCA can be considered as a new approach to data analysis. This approach, despite the use of social science research can be successfully used in analysis of cooperative ties among cluster members. Implementation of the study allowed us to develop innovative approaches to identify practices and processes carried out in clusters. The current test method clusters, which is their benchmarking, narrows the possibilities cognitive and research. This line of research suggests the possibility of using QCA to examine the circumstances of the clusters.

Keywords:

Qualitative Comparative Analysis, education cluster, behavior of cooperative.