Regional Cluster, Innovation and Export Performance: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Regional clusters and innovations in product and processes are found in the literature as important determinants of firms' export performance. However, this relationship is still controversial and very highly constrained by industry, and by regions. Based on a more integrative perspective, the aim of the present article is to investigate the role of agglomeration economies of a regional cluster on the export performance of firms. Furthermore, we will test the mediating effect of innovation and the extent by which the technological intensity of the industry can perform a moderating effect between the constructs. Based on a sample of 100 export companies operating in the manufacturing industries, we use structural equation modeling to estimate the determinants of export performance. The results reveal that the agglomeration economies of a regional cluster have been found determinant factors of the export performance, as well as a significant source to generate innovations by firms. However, we found no evidence between the innovations in products and processes and export performance. The results have also shown that there are no differences among technological intensity of the industries, suggesting that the firms will access agglomeration resources of regional cluster in a complementary way to their internal resources.

The landscape of open innovation in Brazil: An analysis of the recent literature

“…Merino et al (2018) emphasize that the opening of innovative processes can lead to the increase of potential and effective consumers Silva et al (2016) investigated the relationships of small business partnerships with external agents, and their results showed that the relationship between external agents and small firms favors innovative performance. In regional clusters, Prim et al (2016) found that firms that access additional resources with greater intensity tend to improve product and process innovation and export performance.…”

Organizações de apoio no auxílio à governança em clusters competitivos

“…Ainda segundo os autores, uma estratégia orientada para o cluster pode ser identificada por acontecimentos como: reuniões entre negócios, programação de eventos, presença de assessoria específica e ações voltadas para a competitividade do agrupamento. fornecedores, clientes, concorrentes e empresas relacionadas; e os recursos institucionais representam organizações educacionais, profissionais e organizações de governança do cluster, aqui denominadas, organizações de apoio (Prim, Amal & Carvalho, 2016).…”

Prevalence of Copycat in Africa Textile Clusters: The Blame Game Among Stakeholders

“…These specialized skills do promote social networks and relationships that are stable as there is exchange of knowledge through interaction or through practicing over a period of time (Gereffi & Lee, 2016;Newman, Page, Rand, Shimeles, Söderbom, & Tarp, 2016). Evidently, it can be seen that firms within an industry cluster turn to be more innovative and competitive than those outside the cluster (Branco & Lopes, 2018;Lindberg & Säll, 2013;Porter, 2000) because an empirical evidence by Prim et al (2016) proves that a significant source by which firms can generate innovation, competition and sustenance is through agglomeration economies of a cluster. The operational patterns of clusters have the flexibility in adjusting to uncertain business transformations (Purwanto, Kamaruddin, & Mohamad, 2015;He, Rayman-Bacchus, & Wu, 2011) and may explain why cluster entities that are not properly connected fail (Bankova, 2015;McCormick, 1998).…”