International trade fairs as amplifiers of permanent and temporary proximities in clusters

Abstract

Conceptualizing proximity as a mainly geographically and more or less permanently anchored phenomenon has been shown to be insufficient in clusters; the proximity between firms also has a temporary and relational character when coupled with globalization. This paper aims to contribute to this debate, exploring the role of international trade fairs (ITFs) for amplifying permanent and temporary proximities in clusters. Combining permanent and temporary proximities, a framework is integrated to enquire how non-local foreign relations encountered at ITFs are interconnected in a cluster network. The cluster network depicts the firms that are related for business and innovation purposes at three kinds of proximity. The first kind, the intra-cluster proximity, concerns the overall local networking. The second kind, the extra-cluster proximity, comprises trans-national friendship relations, trans-national market relations, and trans-national partnerships instigated at ITFs. The third kind, the bridging proximity, includes the cases in which firms engaged at ITFs interact with firms not participating at ITFs. This paper relies on social network analysis techniques in order to examine the proximity kinds in a Swedish cluster. The findings reveal that ITFs amplify the possibilities for interconnecting local relations and transnational relations. Participation at ITFs can potentially help firms to overcome the geographical limits of clusters.

Keywords:

• international trade fairs
• clusters
• permanent and temporary proximity
• social network analysis

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Bengt Johannisson, Kåre Hansen, Sven-Åke Hörte, Anders Malmberg, Anders Pehrsson, and Sarah Philipson for their comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. Furthermore, the author wishes to thank all the participants of the seminars held at Växjö University for their comments on her work. She is also grateful to Gösta Karlsson for his support with the social network analysis. Financial support provided for the author's doctoral research by the National Council of Science and Technology in Mexico, CONACyT and Växjö University is gratefully acknowledged. The author is indebted to the business persons in Lammhult, Sweden, who kindly answered her surveys.

Notes

1. Clusters are conceptualized as local geographical concentrations of social and economic activities operating in the same, related and non-related industries. This conceptualization differs and overlaps with other definitions adopted in the literature to enquire into similar socio-economic phenomena, such as industrial districts, industrial clusters, localized production systems, milieux, etc. (for other definitions see Marshall 1920; Becattini 1988; Camagni 1991; Humprey and Schmitz 1996; Porter 1998; Belussi and Pilotti 2002; Garofoli 2002; Scott 2002; Giuliani and Bell 2005). Clusters include horizontal and vertical networks of relations like the traditional definitions of clusters. According to Maskell (2001), the horizontal relations of a cluster include the interaction, co-operation and competition between firms producing similar goods. The vertical relations of a cluster correspond to the interactions, co-operation and competition between firms in networks of suppliers or customers. Clusters here also rely upon lateral networks of relations between and within members of non-related industries (Johannisson, Ramírez, and Karlsson 2002a).

2. ITF is one of the different activities undertaken for specific reasons in the marketing-event industry of professional gatherings. Other activities not addressed in this paper include: scientific/technical conferences, congresses and conventions and overseas trade missions (Herbig, O'Hara, and Palumbo 1998; Palumbo, O'Hara, and Herbig 1998; Wilkinson and Brouthers 2000).

3. The direct antecedent of the modern ITFs is the sample fairs (i.e. also called ‘Ausfuhrmesse’, export fair, Allix 1922). These fairs were first introduced at the Crystal Palace in England in 1851 (Seringhaus and Rosson 1994) and then appeared in Leipzig in the 1890s (Allix 1922). The sample fairs were of an international character; they were organized periodically and were habitually held at the centre of a region of production. Buyers were offered samples of products, and orders were taken to be executed at contracted times. Products were despatched from sellers to buyers without physically passing through the fair.

4. The concrete outcome of participation at ITFs for exhibitors and visitor varies depending on the firm's strategy and is often materialized several months after the ITFs (Rice 1992; Hansen 2004).

5. Other authors have considered more complex definitions of proximity. Boschma (2005) considers cognitive, geographical, institutional, organizational and social proximities, Oerlemans and Meeus (2005) makes a distinction between spatial and organizational proximities, and Torre and Rallet (2005) differentiate between geographical and organized proximities.

6. Allix (1922), in particular, addresses time in relation to the periodicity and itinerancy of fairs. The regular recurrence of fairs allows for the temporariness and itinerancy of encounters among traders, customers, debtors and creditors.

7. This statement does not mean that local relations last forever, but it does mean that once they are established, they tend to last a long time (Uzzi 1997).

8. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) originally introduced the concept of absorptive capacity. Absorptive capacity refers to the ability of a firm to recognize extra-cluster knowledge, assimilate it, and share it with other firms (Giuliani and Bell 2005).

9. This implies that the analysis of the local and trans-national relations does not deal with the specific relevance of the relations for the firm.

10. These three multi-stranded relations do not represent all possible strands that could be accounted for in a cluster (for other types of strands and relations, see, for example, Johannisson, Ramírez, and Karlsson 2002a; Giuliani and Bell 2005; Powell, Koput, and Smith-Doerr 2005).