United we stand, divided we fall? Clustered firms’ relationships after the 2008 crisis

Abstract

Research on clusters or industrial districts within various schools of thought focuses on the relationships between clustered firms. We observed that the territory can produce sources of advantage, but also disadvantages, for firms. Using an exploratory and qualitative approach, the aim of this work is to determine what happened in the Spanish ceramic tile industrial district firms’ relationships after the 2008 crisis. The analysis has been performed in three of the dimensions in which these connections can take place: cooperation – horizontal and vertical cooperation, knowledge transfer and supporting institutions, along with innovation as a measure of performance. In order to examine these shifts, members of the firms and institutions in the cluster were interviewed, resulting in eight propositions for changes that may take place when the competition is intensified within a cluster, suggesting an analytical framework that could be tested in future research.