Competitive advantage and clusters: What can we learn from nine Turkish clusters?

Abstract

Many researchers have studied the ability of clusters to promote innovation, regional economic development, and national prosperity; however, these studies had been mostly conducted at the cluster level, not at the firm level. This study attempts to bring the cluster discourse back to the firm by answering the following research question: how do firms create and defend competitive advantages through clusters? The theoretical model presumes positive relationships between several constructs and firm performance, namely, business ties, support ties, entrepreneurial orientation and strategic learning capability. Furthermore, these relationships are supposed to be enhanced by the moderating effect of the cluster construct. The Partial Least Squares path model analysis of data from 160 surveyed firms located in nine Turkish clusters revealed that only entrepreneurial orientation and support ties contributed significantly and positively to firm performance.