Regional cluster, innovation and export performance: an empirical study.
| Autor | Prim, Alexandre Luis |
| Cargo | Report |
Introduction
Over the past decades several scholars have investigated the determinants of export performance. However, the literature of International Business still shows heterogeneous and controversial results (Chugan & Singh, 2014; Moghaddam, Hamid, & Aliakbar, 2012; Nazar & Saleem, 2009; Srivastava, Moser, & Meijer, 2015).
Different studies have attempted to analyze the relationships between the location advantages of regional clusters and export performance of firms (Diez-Vial & Fernandez-Olmos, 2014; Fernhaber, Gilbert, & McDougall, 2008), cluster and innovation (Lai, Hsu, Lin, Chen, & Lin, 2014; Tristao, Oprime, Jugend, & Silva, 2013), or innovation and export performance (Alegre, Pla-Barber, Chiva, & Villar, 2012; Becker & Egger, 2013; Tavassoli, 2013). However, it seems that there are still relative lacks of studies seeking for the establishment of the connections between the three dimensions, and to explore in depth the mediating effects of technological intensity of the industry, particularly in the case of emerging economies.
Aiming to contribute to the field of international business from the perspective of the determinants of the export performance, this study is guided by the following research question: What is the influence of the agglomeration economies of a regional cluster on firm's export performance? And in which extent this effect can be mediated by innovation and moderated by the technological intensity of industry?
The effects of regional clusters will be captured in this study by the externalities that arise from the agglomeration economies, which can provide for firms significant access to location binding specific resources. By cluster resources, we understand the set of institutional, network, and geographical proximities advantages that can spill over the performance of firms on the national and/or international levels (Delgado, Porter, & Stern, 2010; Giuliani, 2007, 2013; Glaeser & Kerr, 2009; Kukalis, 2010; Maskell, Bathelt, & Malmberg, 2006; Maskell & Malmberg, 1999; McCann & Folta, 2008; Molina-Morales & Martinez-Fernandez, 2004). We suggest that as such externalities effects shape and influence the innovation of firms, we consider that the impact of these cluster resources on the export performance of firms will be mediated by the firms' innovation in product and services. This means, more specifically, that firms with high innovation performance may better benefit from such agglomeration externalities, and therefore, will also perform better in international market. With the aim to achieve our objective, we adopt a theoretical framework that is based on a more integrative approach of the contributions of regional clusters, innovation in products and processes and the export performance literatures. Thus, this research aims to contribute to the studies of export performance's determinants by several ways. First, by analyzing the relationship between regional cluster and export performance using an integrative approach. Second, we will test how such relationships can be mediated by product and process innovation. Third, by testing the moderating effect of industry's technological intensity. In addition, we will provide insights of the case of firms from an emerging economy, where the dynamic of economic agglomeration can provide important sources of competitive advantages for firms when entering and exploring foreign markets. As the forces of globalization move at a faster pace than the forces that influence the geographic sources of competitive advantage, economies will become in some ways more distinct, rather than less distinct (Enright, 1993). We consider that the geographic sources of competitive advantages, like localized human capital, presence of key suppliers, tastes of local consumers, demand patterns of industrial customers, the nature and levels of local competition and cooperation, and local institutions may operate differently from country to country, or between developed and developing countries.
Based on a survey data by firms operating in the manufacturing industries in Brazil, we estimate an equation structural model to test the relationships between cluster resources and export performance. The results of the empirical study show that agglomeration economies of a regional cluster have positive effect on both innovation and export performance of firms. However, innovation, in turn, shows no effect on the export performance neither as a mediator in the relationship between resources in clusters and the export performance. On the other hand, we could establish no evidence on the moderating effect of technological intensity of the industry.
The paper proceeds as follow. In the next section, we will present the literature review and develop the hypotheses of the study. Then, we will describe the methodological procedures, estimate and discuss the results. Finally, we debate the main findings and conclude the study.
Theoretical Referential and Hypotheses
In the following section, we will review the literature on the determinant of export performance. We will, particularly, focus on the effects of regional clusters and innovation, and set up the main hypotheses of the study.
Determinants of export performance
The participation in international markets represents important motivation means to the nations as the growth of economic activity, job opportunities, increased industrial productivity, profitability increase, and other relevant economic and social impacts (Guan & Ma, 2003; Moghaddam et al., 2012).
The export performance corresponds to a measurement element used by researchers to measure the company's internationalization process (Carneiro, Rocha, & Silva, 2007). Facing a great body of research in recent decades aiming at understanding the factors that led the companies to foreign markets, scholars have found heterogeneous results (Ayan & Percin, 2005; Chugan & Singh, 2014; Moghaddam et al., 2012; Souza, Martinez-Lopez, & Coelho, 2008).
The Figure 1 below synthesizes the main contributions of scholars on the relationships between regional clusters, innovation and export performance. Among these studies, the effects of regional clusters spillovers (Chugan & Singh, 2014; Wheeler, Ibeh, & Dimitratos, 2008) and innovation of firms (Chugan & Singh, 2014; Souza et al., 2008) have been pointed as determinants of export performance. In addition, studies have suggested other determinant factors, like organizational aspects such as company's size (Souza et al., 2008; Wheeler et al., 2008), international experience (Moghaddam et al., 2012; Papadopoulos & Martin, 2010) and the location of firms in greater industrial regional agglomerations (Mittelstaedt, Ward, & Nowlin, 2006).
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Regional cluster, innovation and export performance
The original discussion of industrial districts (or regional cluster) has its origins in the Alfred Marshall's (1890) book Principles of Economics (1890), who discussed the phenomenon of the agglomeration of specialized industries, as well the trade transactions occurring in such locations.
Marshall's work (1890) on agglomeration of industries offers four important contributions to the debate of industrial districts: (a) primarily, the location of spatial concentration of industries benefits from a pool of workers with specialized skills (access to skilled labor); (b) as a secondary contribution, this spatial agglomeration facilitates the development of specialized inputs and services; (c) provides for business opportunities of technological spillovers; and (d) access to higher market demand.
While the first three types of agglomeration externalities tend to benefit businesses by providing unique and efficient access to the provision of the necessary resources, the last advantage benefits particularly companies by increasing the demand for products or services (Marshall, 1890).
Subsequent to Marshall's work (1890), the effects of clustering were discussed by Alfred Weber (1929) in the paper entitled Theory of the Location of Industries (Weber, 1929). Weber (1929) distinguished three different categories of advantages in determining location of industrial production: (a) transportation costs; (b) labor; and (c) agglomeration.
More precisely, these advantages are divided into three categories. First, they can be generated by firms' economies of scale. Second, the agglomeration can occur because of the proximity to suppliers, a labor market in pool or localized knowledge diffusion. Finally, the concentration of production may give rise to external advantages, such as a highly developed infrastructure, lower energy costs, etc.--that is, which Weber calls urbanization economies (Weber, 1929).
In the economic and business literatures, several designations and concepts have been used to describe and address the phenomenon of economic agglomeration or the geographic concentration of industries: clusters, industrial districts, local cooperation networks, local productive systems, local clusters, Innovative milieu, technology parks, local innovation systems, among others. In some specific cases, the different concepts express different theoretical approaches, and in many times they are uses to describe the same phenomenon, pointing to the local perspective of addressing firms ' competitiveness and/or limitations
Alfred Marshall (1890) was one the first economists to highlight the advantages of industrial agglomeration. He suggested that firms can benefit in several ways from agglomeration economies, like the specialization of labor, knowledge spillovers, access to specific resources, which can support firms' growth. Marshall called such advantages as externalities of economic agglomeration.
The industrial concentrations may involve specialized suppliers, related industries and support entities (such as government institutions, governmental organizations, business associations, research centers, etc.) that, together, seek...
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