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Managing marketing externalities in innovative natural resources-based clusters
Christian Felzensztein
School of Business, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
Eli Gimmon
Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee, Israel
Abstract
Regional clusters have been the basis for global competitiveness in smaller countries that may lack the domestic market necessary for growth, and for companies in developing economies with weaker infrastructure and limited supporting industries. For this reason, this study explores more specifically the development of co-marketing activities and cooperation between firms operating in innovative resources-based clusters of the salmon farming industry in two leader producers' countries: Scotland and Chile.
The results suggest that social networking activities enhance inter-firm co-operation. This may yield marketing externalities and create new cooperative long-term competitive strategies among firms.
Keywords
natural resources-based clusters, inter-firm cooperation, social networking, salmon industry
Article Text
The role of inter-organisational networks and inter-personal networks in industrial clusters is not new. Research conducted by Chetty and Agndal (2008) shows that despite the initial reluctance for firms to collaborate in industrial districts, organisations learnt to maintain a balance between competition and cooperation. This is done through formal and informal formalisation of relations between actors at the organisational and individual levels.
The above is key for firms to compete in global markets. However, doing this in the Chilean economy, which is predominantly based on natural resource exploitation, is not easy.
It is well known that there are difficulties and opportunities to achieve business, economic and social growth based on natural resource-dominated industries. For example, over the past five decades, Scottish businesses have made concerted efforts to diversify into more knowledge-based forms and compete in global markets, with varying degrees of success. Firms have often achieved greater competitiveness and growth, and new firms have formed more frequently when they work within a cluster.
Clusters, however, do not form spontaneously, but are heavily influenced by promotion, funding, public policy, social awareness, open collaborative values and formal professional management over decades.
This research is concerned with cooperative strategies among natural resources cluster-based firms, illustrated by the factors that influence the development of co-marketing activities. Theorists have consistently demonstrated the role and importance of economic externalities, such as knowledge spillovers, within industrial clusters. Less research attention has been paid to the investigation of marketing based externalities and their influence on the competitive strategy of firms, though it has been suggested that these may also accrue from geographical agglomeration. This under-explored issue in the literature is addressed in this research.
The main research objectives of the paper are: (1) To examine the relationship between the issues related to regional clusters in developing positive externalities which yield inter-firm cooperation in marketing, (2) To explore to what extent elements of co-location and networking influence inter-firm co-operation in marketing, and (3) to compare similar clusters in two different countries.
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