An approach for evaluating collaboration attributes in cluster-based companies

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for evaluating collaboration attributes in companies operating in industrial clusters. From the literature review, we identified governance, geographic proximity, and trust as the main collaboration attributes in industrial clusters. For each of them, there is a set of related sub-attributes that composed the evaluation model. For developing the model, we used the graph theoretic approach (GTA), a methodology for multi-attribute assessment that considers interdependencies among elements of a system to provide an overall evaluation. We applied the model to five companies of a furniture cluster. The results showed the model allows for systematizing relationship management because it highlights the collaboration attributes that need to be improved. Furthermore, the application of the model may contribute to encouraging companies to develop collaborative practices.

Keywords:

• industrial cluster
• collaboration
• graph theoretic approach
• evaluation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the contribution of the anonymous reviewers and the editor for the helpful suggestions that greatly improved the original manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Cláudia Fabiana Gohr http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9774-7140

Luciano Costa Santos http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7271-8607

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil [grant number No. 448893/2014-2].