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Abstract
This paper extends research on industry clusters by unbundling network from cluster effects and by analysing how network effects drive the performance of cluster firms. The results show that a firm's connectedness in a regional network is positively associated with firm performance. However, we found that for cluster firms, it is even more important to build strong network positions by developing rather exclusive alliance networks. In addition, a weak position within a cluster cannot be compensated for by strong extra-regional networking activities. From this perspective, cluster-specific advantages are firm-specific and the basis for competitive advantage. Regional competitiveness is therefore a non-substitutable pre-condition for the overall performance of cluster firms.
Notes
Notes
1. We also ran an alternative regression model with the direct measure of the number of relationships outside the region leading to similar results. The extroversity measure has, in our view, two advantages. First, it measures the tendency to develop relationships rather outside than inside the region and thus better captures the importance of external ties in comparison with internal ties. Second, while the number of outside ties is correlated with inside ties, the extroversity measure as a ratio is not.
2. No evidence for violations of normality assumptions and no outliers were detected; logarithmic transformations of the variable did not lead to relevant and significant differences.