The Cluster Organization

Analyzing the Development of Cooperative Relationships

Anna Maria Lis, Adrian Lis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000342635
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Development
• Index: Business

Cluster organizations are becoming more and more popular, both in developing and developed countries. Considering the development of cluster policy and the related dynamic growth of cluster initiatives in the world, the lack of sufficient knowledge on the development of cooperation in cluster organizations inhibits their development and, in many cases, causes their complete disintegration.

The book provides new important elements to the current system of knowledge, filling in cognitive and research gaps in the scientific literature on problems related to cooperation in cluster organizations. The most valuable features for the reader concern the epistemological, methodological, and application aspects. The new element includes a theoretical concept, which refers to the trajectory of development of cooperative relationships in cluster organizations that facilitates the understanding and explanation of mechanisms responsible for cooperation in such organizations.

The concept also has great practical advantages, especially for people implementing the idea of "clustering": coordinators, facilitators, and members of cluster organizations as well as politicians and public authorities are responsible for shaping and implementing the cluster policy. It will be of value to researchers, academics, and students in fields with an interest in organizational studies, management of innovation and technology, strategic management, industrial economics, and economic geography.

1 Introduction

Contextual Background and Motivation

The scientific literature on the origin and evolution of the industrial district concept used by Marshall and contemporary industrial regions, including Porter’s clusters, is abundant and multi-threaded. Most publications in scientific literature refer to clusters viewed in geographical or economic categories, yet only a few of them address clusters as organizations. A cluster, like other concepts based on knowledge and innovation, is a subject of empirical analysis and research in economic geography. The phenomenon of new industrial districts is also studied within regional science, which emphasizes on the role of geographic proximity and the innovative milieu. The relations between the location and the competitive advantage were studied by the representatives of classical economics – A. Smith and neoclassical economics – A. Marshall. The discussion concerning the specific issue is continued on the basis of agglomeration theory, transaction cost theory, the theory of flexible specialization, institutional and evolutionary economics, as well as the network approach.

Contrary to the concept of a cluster, a cluster organization (CO) (which is the focus of this publication) has been scarcely explored so far. Although those two concepts exist as an abstract notion, the boundaries of COs are precisely defined. Acting in COs, the entities are aware of being elements of a bigger, formally constituted structure (which they have joined purposefully) and act actively in order to achieve some collective or individual objectives (aimed at developing their mother organizations or the ones set entirely individually). Understanding COs as organizations which function at a higher level of aggregation is extremely valuable when viewed from the perspective of the management sciences; it implies that collective entities assume an intentional and engaged approach towards their functioning in the structure of a higher level. At the same time, it also imposes the necessity to provide management to such a complex organization. Managing a CO means coordinating the actions undertaken by the collective entities (the institutional members) and individuals (who are employed in the organizations as members of the CO and who are engaged in activities undertaken within such an organization). The aspect of organizing teamwork in order to achieve certain objectives is the key factor with regard to the specific nature of COs.

To date, the scientific literature has not provided any models of developing cooperation in COs – there are no publications that would be characterized by a dynamic and holistic approach to cooperation in COs. Therefore, there is a huge cognitive and research gap, especially since dynamic development of COs is observed throughout the world, especially in Europe and Asia, as a part of a cluster-based policy. In Europe, an effective cluster policy was perceived as an important tool in achieving the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy 2000–2010. The idea of supporting cluster development is also devised in the current EU strategy “Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”. In many COs, especially those operating in countries where cluster policy is developing (such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania, etc.), no mechanisms have been developed to encourage enterprises to enter any cooperation, which can result in suspension or ultimate termination of some particular COs.

The Research Problem and Aim of the Book

The arguments mentioned above – on the one hand, insufficient identification and scarce recognition of the problems related to the development of cooperation in COs in scientific literature, and on the other hand, popularity but also deficiency of many COs has become the starting point for designing empirical research, in which the main research problem is the development of cooperative relationships in COs. The authors intend to answer the following research question: “What are the stages of the development of cooperative relationships (level of cooperation) in CO?” In the presented publication, the notion of cooperative relationships refers to the relations established by COs to cooperate with one another. Since such cooperation may involve a highly diverse set of activities (ranging from the simplest to the most advanced ones), the concept of a cooperation level acts as an equal notion, directly referring to the gradual character of the analyzed phenomenon. While designing the research, it was assumed that the identification of the factors that affect the origin and development of cooperative relationships in COs would improve the knowledge of this field (in terms of its theoretical aspect) and appear useful to the discussed organizations to achieve higher levels of their development (when considering the practical aspect).

The main aim of the research was to identify the levels of advancement of cooperation among clusters to create a theoretical concept covering the trajectory of the development of cooperative relationships in COs. At such an early stage of development, it seemed more reasonable to explore the areas of the discussed problem and, on this basis, generate new theories rather than to assess the existing ones. It should be noted that the authors are cautious in using the term “theory”, instead the term “theoretical concept” is used to describe the research findings, assuming that only the confirmation of the universality of the observed relations in the next studies (in parallel with overcoming the existing limitations) will provide the basis for recognizing the concepts as a full-fledged scientific theory. The aforementioned aim of the study is based on three contexts: exploration, description and explanation. The exploration context is emphasized by the inductive–abductive procedure applied in the research carried out with the use of methodological recommendations of the grounded theory. The description context applies in defining certain characteristics describing the phenomenon of cooperation among selected COs. The explanation context is directly related to the identification and understanding of factors which predominantly affect the formation and development of the intra-cluster cooperation.

The proposed book may be claimed as novelty, significantly contributing to the present state of knowledge on industrial cluster – it is a perfectly balanced, exhaustive study of collaboration development in COs, with special emphasis put on these countries where cluster policy is developing. An inductive character of the created concept is also the special feature of the book. The methodology of grounded theory applied in the book allowed for a better understanding of the specific nature of cooperation within COs.

On the theoretical level, the identification of the development trajectory of cooperative relationships in COs expands the current state of knowledge in this regard and sheds new light on the development of cluster cooperation. On the practical level, in turn, it can help COs achieve higher levels of development. In order for a given CO to become a fully functional structure, it is necessary – on the one hand – for its components to be willing to be constituted in such a form, and on the other hand – for them to have knowledge about the possibility of establishing and developing cooperation relations with other entities.

Structure and Contents

The book comprises seven logically structured chapters (including Chapter 1). Here below, we briefly explain the chapters’ content and contribution.

Chapter 2 describes a broad conceptual background of clusters and COs. In the beginning we present the older and contemporary theories on the establishment and development of industrial clusters to underlie the context of the implemented research. The main ideas of Porter’s concept of a cluster are presented in juxtaposition with various approaches in defining a cluster provided in the scientific literature. The next part of the chapter addresses the specific nature of a CO as an instrument of cluster policy supporting the development of a specific cluster. Moreover, we describe the relationships among a CO and previously discussed concepts and approaches. Subsequently, issues related to the development of cooperation within COs are described. Finally, we discuss the impact of COs on increasing the competitiveness of cluster companies.

Chapter 3 discusses the theoretical foundations of cooperation – one of the two most basic types of relations that occur between entities embedded in the economic field (the other is competition). The first part of the chapter refers to the necessary terminological clarifications and identification of factors that are conducive (catalysts) and not conducive to the establishment and development of cooperation processes in organizations (with particular emphasis on COs). The second part of the chapter presents those theories of cooperation which, according to the authors, are best suited to describe the cooperation of entities within COs. Three separate blocks of the theory were established: “structure/sector”, “resources” and “relations”, which present some of the most promising – from the point of view of the analysis of COs – approaches.

Chapter 4 concerns the research methodology: the research paradigm (interpretative-symbolic) and the research strategy. The project was based on abduction and grounded theory (which is why the focus is on discussing both of these issues in the context of the conducted research in COs), as well as case studies. In the second part of the chapter, the research procedure that has been applied to design and implement the qualitative research is presented, including the method of selection of the research sample, the technique of data collection, the analysis and interpretation, and the methodological regime.

Chapter 5 is devoted to discussing the results of qualitative research and, above all, to present the theoretical concept of development of cooperative relationships in COs generated on the basis of the conducted research. The main categories selected in the coding process were used to present this concept: levels of cooperation, the roles of COs (the perspective of organization at the second level of aggregation) and the involvement of members (the perspective of organization at the first level of aggregation). The generated concept was presented in the form of a theoretical discussion conducted at a fairly high level of generality, to focus on the most important elements and relations between them.

Chapter 6 consists of three case studies, which are a practical exemplification of the generated concept of the trajectory of cooperative relationships in COs. COs described as a part of individual case studies are located in the territory of European countries: Hungary, Romania, and Germany. Such a geographical diversity of COs enables to show the universality of the proposed concept.

Chapter 7 summarizes the major findings and provides theoretical and practical contribution, current limitations and directions for further research.

The presented book presents a wide array of aspects dealing with broadly defined clustering, hence it may claim to have an international appeal. It is addressed in particular to those countries where cluster policy is developing. The book is aimed principally at the audience of scholars and academic professionals from a wide variety of disciplines but mainly those who are concerned with issues of economic development and growth, determinants of economic development, and the role of clustering in broadly defined socio-economic development. The second group of audience the book may appeal to are coordinators and facilitators of COs and cluster members. The book presents the most up-to-date studies on cluster cooperation, therefore the third group of audience of this publication comprises public authorities at various levels involved in the social, economic and/or technological issues of both developed and developing countries, whose decisions may affect the broadly understood cluster policy.

For each of the above-mentioned groups of audience, the book should be a valuable supplement to the already possessed knowledge of cooperation in higher-level organizations on the example of COs.

2 Theoretical Foundations of Clusters and Cluster Organizations

Chapter 2 presents the concept of cluster and cluster initiative (CI) further on referred to as cluster organization (CO). In the context of the theoretical background and its practical implications, it is not only important to present these concepts, but also to scrutinize the differences between them. The first part of the chapter provides the main conclusions from the review of the subject literature, revealing the current state of knowledge of the prior as well as the contemporary theories on the establishment and development of industrial clusters. Next, the main idea of both the cluster and the CO is presented, including their definitions and basic attributes. The further considerations concern a systematic literature review carried out to assess the degree of dissemination of the concept of a cluster, a CI and a CO. The second part addresses selected issues related to cluster cooperation, which strictly correspond to the research aspect of the book. The main focus is put on the constituent elements of COs and the relationships they establish, the main areas of cooperation and involvement as well as the dynamics of a cluster and a CO. The third part of chapter discusses the impact of clustering on competitiveness. The conclusions provided at the end of the chapter refer to the differences observed between the discussed concepts as well as (which is important for the further parts of the work) indicate the current research gap.

The Concept of a Cluster and a Cluster Organization

Theories on the Establishment and Development of Industrial Clusters

The concept of COs, which is the heart of the matter of the publication, originated from the idea of a cluster – a term introduced to the management literature by Porter. Despite the unquestionable popularity of clusters, it is essential to emphasize that the literature provides many other theories (the older as well as the latest ones) concerning the relations among entities and their impact on the economic growth and development (Feser, 1998). As Porter admits, the theories contributed to understanding of the influence of clusters on competition (Porter, 2008). Among many other concepts, there are the most distinctive ones, i.e. Marshallian industrial district (Marshall, 1890) and Italian industrial district (Pyke et al., 1990; Becattini, 2002; Bellandi, 2002; Sforzi, 2002) as well as the theories of innovation and knowledge-based regional development (regions as knowledge and innovation hubs) (Martin, 2003) such as innovative milieu (Aydalot, 1986; Camagni, 1991; Maillat & Perrin, 1992; Maillat et al., 1993; Ratti et al., 1997; Maillat, 1998; Crevoisier & Camagni, 2000), learning region (Florida, 1995; Asheim, 1996; Morgan, 1997; Hudson, 1999), regional innovation system (Cooke et al., 1997; Cooke et al., 1998; Asheim & Isaksen, 1997; Braczyk et al., 1998; Cooke, 2001; Carlsson et al., 2002; Doloreux, 2002; Doloreux & Parto, 2005), innovation ecosystem (Adner, 2006; Adner & Kapoor, 2010, 2016; Autio & Thomas, 2014; Gobble, 2014) that arose from the business ecosystem concept (Moore, 1993; 1996; Iansiti & Levien, 2004). Because it would be futile to maintain that the literature offers only one universal term to refer to the whole group of the theories, a general term, i.e. industrial clusters, has been applied in the publication to refer to the earlier as well as the contemporary concepts. However, particular term has been applied to highl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Theoretical Foundations of Clusters and Cluster Organizations
• 3 Theoretical Foundations of Cooperation in Cluster Organizations
• 4 Application of Grounded Theory and the Abduction Approach to the Research of Cluster Organizations
• 5 Development of Cooperation in Cluster Organizations: Results of Empirical Research
• 6 Application of the Generated Concept to Selected Cluster Organizations in Europe
• 7 Conclusions
• Index