IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ahe/invest/v14y2018i01p43-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cluster and business performance: Historical evidence from the Portuguese cork industry

Author

Listed:
  • Amélia Branco

    (ISEG, Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa, and Research Center of Economic and Social History (GHES)/Research in Social Sciences and Management (CSG), Lisboa, Portugal)

  • João Carlos Lopes

    (ISEG, Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa, and Research Unit on Complexity and Economics (UECE), Lisboa, Portugal)

Abstract

This paper analyses the relative performance of clustered and non-clustered companies during the different phases of the cluster life cycle. It starts by explaining the location of most of the Portuguese cork manufacturing companies in Santa Maria da Feira, a small county in the north of the country, whereas the bulk of cork is produced in the South. The historical roots of the Feira cluster are examined, as well as the identification of its life cycle phases. The performance of clustered and non-clustered companies is compared using labour productivity data over a long time span of several decades. This exercise illustrates the crucial importance of history for the understanding of cluster dynamics, as well as many other (evolutionary) economic phenomena. KEY Classification-JEL: R12. L73. N60. O14

Suggested Citation

  • Amélia Branco & João Carlos Lopes, 2018. "Cluster and business performance: Historical evidence from the Portuguese cork industry," Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research (IHE-EHR), Journal of the Spanish Economic History Association, Asociación Española de Historia Económica, vol. 14(01), pages 43-53.
  • Handle: RePEc:ahe:invest:v:14:y:2018:i:01:p:43-53
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/IHE/article/view/70815/42890
    Download Restriction: This is an Open Access journal
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ayrapetyan, David & Hermans, Frans, 2020. "Introducing a multiscalar framework for biocluster research: A meta-analysis," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(9).
    2. J. Francisco Rangel-Preciado & Francisco M. Parejo-Moruno & Esteban Cruz-Hidalgo & Francisco J. Castellano-Álvarez, 2021. "Rural Districts and Business Agglomerations in Low-Density Business Environments. The Case of Extremadura (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Mercè Sala‐Ríos, 2024. "What are the determinants affecting cooperatives’ profitability? Evidence from Spain," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(1), pages 85-111, March.
    4. Ayrapetyan, David, 2023. "Technological innovations and sustainability transitions in the bioeconomy: A multiscalar approach toward the development of bioclusters," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 278703, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Industria corchera. Ciclo de vida del clúster. Localización industrial. Portugal;

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • L73 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Forest Products
    • N60 - Economic History - - Manufacturing and Construction - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ahe:invest:v:14:y:2018:i:01:p:43-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Elena Garcia Cruz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeheeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.