Partners Forever? An Empirical Study of Relational Ties in Two Small-firm Clusters

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10864202
AutoresUdo Staber (University of Canterbury, autor correspondente)
Ano2011
Volume48
Fascículo2
Páginas235-252
Data de publicação2011-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoUrban Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0042-0980 • E-ISSN: 1360-063X
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0042098009360679
OpenAlexW2016387529
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas72

Many researchers take as axiomatic the proposition that economic action in clusters is embedded in dense, durable and trust-based social networks. It is suggested here that the bias towards high-trust, enduring relations obscures the competitive dynamics of networks, even where co-operation can be identified. Drawing attention to the competitive motives underlying the construction of social networks, an investigation is made into the duration and brokering of dyadic relations in business owners’ advice networks. The analysis of 668 dyadic ties in a population of 113 small business owners in two textile and clothing clusters in Germany reveals considerable variation in the duration of social relations and the likelihood that they were formed through third-party brokers, many of whom were direct competitors creating more ephemeral links. The findings suggest that ‘marketless’ conceptions of social networks in clusters need to be balanced with a stronger concern for the role of competition in the social embeddedness of small firms

Business · Collective action · Competition (biology · Competitor analysis · Duration (music · Economic geography · Economics · Embeddedness · Interpersonal ties · Political science · Population · Proposition · Social media · Social network (sociolinguistics · Social science · Sociology · Business Strategy and Innovation · Management and Organizational Studies · Marketing · Social Capital and Networks