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The purpose of this paper is to investigate what types of open innovation search strategies are associated with internal innovation activities in family and non-family SMEs within natural resource-based clusters.

This study is based on an empirical analysis of a sample of 245 Chilean firms.

Results suggest that while family and non-family SMEs do not significantly differ in terms of internal innovation activities, important differences exist in terms of open innovation search strategies. In particular, family SMEs search for new ideas and knowledge within their closest network of relationships (e.g. customers, suppliers and competitors), whereas non-family SMEs mainly focus on broader network relationships (e.g. universities, public institutions and fair trade organizations).

This study shows that within a natural resource cluster, the types of firm do matter. In fact, family and non-family SMEs use different open innovation search strategies to innovate; hence, this research may help and assist policy makers in tailoring innovation policies aimed at expanding the potential benefits of clusters for regional growth and development.

This research addresses the call to further investigate the link between family SMEs and innovation in developing countries, given that SMEs may also act as a lively player for regional development.

El objetivo de este artículo es investigar las estrategias de búsqueda de innovación abierta de las pequeñas y medianas empresas familiares y no familiares en un clúster basado en los recursos naturales.

Este estudio está basado en un análisis empírico con una muestra de 245 empresas Chilenas.

Los resultados muestran que no hay diferencias significativas en las actividades internas de innovación entre las pequeñas y medianas empresas familiares y no-familiares de la muestra. Sin embargo, se han encontrado diferencias en las estrategias de búsqueda de innovación abierta que utilizan de las empresas. Las empresas familiares buscan nuevas ideas y conocimiento para innovar entre sus contactos más cercanos (por ejemplo: clientes, proveedores y competidores). Las empresas no-familiares se enfocan en contactos más amplios (por ejemplo: tales como universidades, instituciones públicas y ferias internacionales).

Este estudio muestra que distinguir entre empresas familiares y no familiares dentro de los clúster basados en los recursos naturales es importante. Las pequeñas y medianas empresas familiares y no familiares usan diferentes estrategias de búsqueda de innovación abierta. Por lo tanto, nuestros resultados pueden ayudar al diseño de políticas públicas de innovación diferenciando empresas familiares y no familiares con el objetivo de potenciar los beneficios de los clúster para el crecimiento y desarrollo regional.

Este artículo intenta avanzar en la investigación relacionando innovación y pequeñas y medianas empresas familiares en países en desarrollo.

The paper aims to examine the competitive advantage of the environmental behaviour at a firm level and micro-cluster level, building the analysis on Harts model of natural resource-based view of the firm and by using Brown et al.'s framework for analysing contextual resources that would provide locational advantage based on environmental behaviour. The case study examines the drivers and the obstacles to environmental action and demonstrates how clustering has been important in progressing a sustainability agenda.

A case study of a single wine tourism cluster in Australia is undertaken using mixed methods.

The main drivers for environmental action are genuine concerns for the environment by the cluster participants, especially water conservation in the Australian context. Supporting this is the co-ordination of the Lovedale Chamber of Commerce which has promoted its “greening Lovedale” project as a source of regional identity and potential competitive advantage. The obstacles to action are those that are present when small firms dominate, a lack of resources and a lack of know how. Through clustering small businesses can share resources, access specialists and share knowledge.

A single cluster case study within the Australian and the wine tourism context confined to one point in time.

The clustering of firms in agricultural regions offers the opportunity to achieve individual and collective benefits. Clustering participation can reduce costs, achieve scale economies and share knowledge. These advantages are relevant for environmental actions. In the context of weak or absent government actions and regulations over the environment, regional clusters can utilise the advantages of clustering to meet environmental goals. These in turn can contribute to regional identity and regional comparative advantage. These issues are addressed through the study of the Lovedale wine cluster in Australia.

There are few studies of how clustered agricultural industries are addressing environmental challenges independently of central government directives or subsidies. Clustering enables small firms to participate in environmental programs despite being faced by resource and knowledge shortages.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which main objective is to satisfy the basic needs of the entrepreneur, when geographically concentrated make up subsistence clusters. The purpose of this paper is to analyze collective efficiency in subsistence clusters as growth strategy and how is the process through which the relational capital and territorial proximity altogether improve performance of firms.

The research uses partial least squares techniques applied to a sample of 113 SMEs of wood industry in Oberá, Argentina.

SMEs in subsistence clusters can use relational capital and territory as resources to generate competitive advantages. These competitive advantages foster performance. In consequence, collective efficiency appears as growth strategy in subsistence SMEs.

Data are cross-sectional and in a conjuncture of economy expansion, future research should monitor the sample of firms using panel data to assess the development of relations. Sample is in a particular region and sector and generalizations should be done carefully.

SMEs probably should integrate and share industrial and business structures to develop systemic competitive advantages with a collective character. SMEs should leverage their spatial interaction to build trust and establish networks of cooperation that will be the source of their collective efficiency. These collaboration networks should base in the local knowledge.

Subsistence SMEs have strong impact on the most disadvantaged areas in developing countries. Growth strategies to professionalize these SMEs will have a major impact on the endogenous development of those territories.

The research provides a mechanism through which collective efficiency leads to better performance for subsistence SMEs.

This paper aims to focus on the perceived role of clusters in inter‐firm cooperation and social networks.

The study was carried out in a region of Latin America where limited research has been conducted in terms of inter‐firm relationships. Managers from three key natural resources‐based industries in Chile participated in the survey; one of these industries constituted a well‐defined cluster whereas the other two did not. The survey assessed managers' perceptions of the benefits and opportunities of inter‐firm cooperation in strategic marketing activities.

Results support the advantages of clusters. Managers of firms which are part of clustered industries tend to perceive more benefits and opportunities for inter‐firm co‐operation in marketing activities. Additionally, significant differences between clustered and non‐clustered industries in terms of their co‐operation behavior and objectives were found.

The findings shed light on strategies for the enhancement of inter‐firm cooperation in marketing, of particular value for marketers in small‐and‐medium sized enterprises. The paper suggests establishing new clusters and promoting more regional clusters policies since clustering seems to provide better and positive inter‐firm interaction leading to cooperation.

There are lessons to be learned at national and regional levels for Latin American and emerging economies fostering new industry cluster policies.

Clustered firms and industries may result in more innovative marketing strategies at both local and international levels than non‐clustered firms. The authors encourage regional development bodies to foster more cooperation among firms and trade associations.

This paper aims to analyse the impact of clusters on development and growth at the firm and regional level in Latin America (LA). The past 20 years have witnessed an acceleration of cluster initiatives, assuming their positive impact on firm performance and regional development. However, theoretical development and empirical meta-studies in emerging countries to validate this assumed relationship are scarce.

This paper reviews empirical evidence from a population of 123 studies and a sample of 45 empirical studies including 216 clusters in LA.

It concludes that clusters contribute to both development and growth at the firm- and regional-level contingent to factors such as cluster stage of development, collective efficiency, the pattern of governance of the value chain and the sector in which the firm operates; however, clusters are also a potential source of socio-economic divides.

Therefore, these results qualify the conclusions of studies of clusters in developed countries (Porter, 2003; Delgado et al., 2010).

This research aims to investigate cooperative strategies within the Chilean wine cluster, in particular the factors that influence the development of inter‐firm marketing cooperation.

A 2011 census of the Chilean wine cluster was undertaken. A 30 per cent response rate was obtained and the results are presented.

The results highlight that location benefits of collaboration and access to information and technologies are important to success. Previous research has tended to focus on the issue of terroir. Results also provide evidence of cooperation between firms located close to the focal firm, in particular those directly involved in its value chain. There is also evidence of firms cooperating in marketing activities designed to attract new customers and to strengthen the resulting B2B relationship.

The findings shed light on strategies for the enhancement of formal and informal business networks as a facilitator of effective inter‐firm cooperation in marketing, particularly within SMEs. This study will also be of interest to local authorities and industry bodies seeking to enhance cooperation between local clustered firms.

This study contributes to the understanding and definition of traditional and marketing externalities that cluster “members” accrue as a result of co‐location.

This study aims to focus on how companies operating in international food commodity markets can improve their long-term competitiveness and profitability upon financial pressure. Management can choose between generic strategies of either cost leadership or enhanced value adding by differentiation and innovative marketing strategies. The aim of the paper is to highlight key findings from a case study perspective.

The research is set within the farmed salmon sector in the world’s second largest producing country, Chile, which is also a fast growing emerging economy in Latin America. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with General Managers of this global industry.

Unexpectedly, our findings show that executives preferred competitive strategy of cost reduction rather than differentiation. Based on previous research, we recommend managers of individual firms and trade associations to play down commoditisation and to pursue differentiation strategies with particular attention to emergent environmental attributes.

Practitioners from Latin America may learn on empirical considerations of international marketing strategies taking this competitive global industry as an example. An overall cost leadership strategy is not sufficient in a mature industry, and customer-oriented strategies are needed more than production-oriented strategies. Clustered firms are recommended to benefit from differentiation strategies with particular attention to emergent environmental attributes.

This paper highlights the importance of understanding family firms in different contexts. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the characteristics and behavior of family firms in Ibero-America, and their contribution and fit to the broader field of research. Based on the five articles in this special issue, this paper attempts to give an overview of their main contributions.

This paper explains in a contextual and analytical way the contributions of five papers that focus their attention on Ibero-American family firms, by linking them to the current research in the field and finding their fit within the broader field of family business. Tackling different topics, these five papers discuss about the comparison between family vs non-family businesses, innovation in family firms, and governance in family firms

Findings suggest that there is a need to stimulate research in family business in Ibero-America, especially Latin America, regarding family business dynamics, the different roles of the family within the enterprise, family governance, and the role of women. With regards to innovation the cultural and economic context play an important role in how they perform innovative activities.

This paper contributes to further understanding family firms by discussing the importance of the context and by linking all five papers with the broader literature in family business. The introduction also discusses topics worth to be further researched in Ibero-America.

Este artículo destaca la importancia de entender las empresas familiares en diferentes contextos. El objetivo, por tanto, es reflexionar sobre las características y el comportamiento de las empresas familiares en Ibero-America, y su contribución y encaje en el amplio campo de investigación de la empresa familiar. Basado en los cinco artículos de este número especial, este trabajo intenta dar una visión general sobre sus principales contribuciones.

Este documento explica de manera contextual y analítica las contribuciones de cinco artículos que centran su atención en las empresas familiares iberoamericanas, vinculándolos y buscando el encaje en la investigación existente en el campo de la empresa familiar. Estos cinco documentos discuten sobre la comparación entre las empresas familiares frente a las no familiares, la innovación, y las estructuras de gobierno.

El análisis sugiere la necesidad de estimular la investigación en la empresa familiar en Iberoamérica, especialmente en América Latina, sobre temas de dinámica empresarial de la familia, los diferentes roles de la familia dentro de la empresa, el gobierno familiar , y el papel de las mujeres . Con respecto a la innovación el contexto cultural y económico juega un papel importante en la forma en que realizan sus actividades de innovación.

Este trabajo contribuye a la comprensión de empresas familiares en un determinado contexto, vinculando las cinco publicaciones con la literatura más amplia en la empresa familiar. La introducción también sugiere temas a investigar más en profundidad en Iberoamérica.

The purpose of this study is to explore the configuration of network ties that would have a positive impact on performance outcomes and test the presumed impact of multilevel strategic alliances on innovation and firm performance in a specific industry.

This study comprises part of a larger project on the network relations of yacht-building firms operating in Turkey. Data of the study was collected through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires with 143 yacht-building firms operating in major yacht-building regions of the country.

The findings of the study indicated the presence of meaningful relationship between total number of (strong) network relations perceived as strategic alliance and overall innovation performance. The generally presumed positive relationship between innovation performance and firm performance was supported. The type of innovation performance that was found to be related to the total number of network ties perceived as strategic alliance at national and global levels was product innovation performance.

A possible contribution of this study for industry members would be the implications of the finding that indicates positive impact of strategic alliances with different actors of the industry.

This study contributes to the exploration of network configurations that have a positive impact on innovation and firm performance, by dealing with the impact of the size, strength and geographical level of network relations in one single study. The yacht-building industry as the empirical setting represents a specific category of industry that rests on customized individual or small-batch manufacturing requiring considerable interaction with customers and suppliers. Because no study exists on this topic, findings can inspire similar industries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents (the medieval guild) of modern day industrial clustering. The paper challenges the notion that work of Alfred Marshall provides the intellectual underpinning of cluster thinking.

The source material uses archival research on medieval guilds and historical texts. In tracing the development of forms of co‐operative association this paper employs the technique of genealogical spanning. The prism of forms of co‐operative association is used to examine the rise and fall of the medieval guild.

Medieval guilds have been largely ignored by modern proponents of cluster theory and Italianate industrial districts. Guild activity in technological invention and innovation, in skills transfer and knowledge (both codified and tacit) had many of the same positive attributes that are found in neo‐Marshallian industrial districts. The long history of cooperative behaviour in geographically concentrated firms in industrial districts had its genesis in the medieval guild.

The paper suggests that collaboration (in craft guilds) and clusters (cooperation and relationships) have been a dominant paradigm since the Middle Ages; a viewpoint which is commonly ignored by the dominant US‐centric view of individualism, competition and arms lengths relationships in business. Cooperation and relationships have attracted significant scholarly attention and most recently the studies in the cluster literature have tended to favour the social and knowledge‐based approach. This phenomenon suggests that the future social, political and economic dynamics in Europe will remain firmly rooted in the creation of areas of regional specialization, as has been the case in the past.

This paper contributes to our understanding of the embeddedness of cooperation by comparing the characteristics of the medieval guild with the characteristics of modern day (Porterian clusters). Cooperation rather than competition is the dominant paradigm of industrial activity. The competitive divide between employers and employees was an aberration of the Industrial Revolution and promoted by political economists as a means of facilitating the mobility of labour by diffusion.