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The link between relationship typologies and effectiveness of conflict resolution approaches remains to be tested despite its significance in conflict management in construction project delivery. By using the four relationships attributes based on the group attachment theory, the purpose of the study was to explore the cluster of relationships among project teams and organisations and the performance of conflict management strategies across these clusters in the Ghanaian construction industry.

Using a deductive questionnaire survey in the Ghanaian construction industry, a total of 137 responses were gathered and analyzed using cluster analysis, mean scores and ANOVA to reveal the relationship clusters and performance of conflict management strategies across these clusters.

The results revealed eight relationship clusters that exist among project teams and organisations with distinct influence of roles & tasks function, cognition, emotions and behavior attributes across the relationship clusters. In the aspect of the effectiveness of conflict management strategies, it was noted that the performance of these strategies were significantly different across the groups. For instance, integrating as a conflict management strategy was deemed to be effective in resolving conflict in unitary, adversarial, pluralist, mutuality, collaborative and partnering relationship clusters. In the case of coopetitive and coercive relationships, the performance of integrating as a conflict management strategy was less effective. This study thus has empirically proved that, different relationship clusters of teams and organizations exist within the Ghanaian construction industry, and that they perform different roles & tasks functions, cognition, emotions and behavioural attributes in their formation. Additionally, the performance effectiveness of conflict management strategies differed across the relationship clusters.

By aligning the relationship attributes to the dynamics of relationship clusters experienced in project teams and organisations, relationship quality, suitability and effectiveness of conflict management strategies can be optimized. The findings can inform project teams and stakeholders to develop fit-for-purpose relationship attributes among teams and organisations to enhance team effectiveness, relationship quality and conflict management in the industry.

Cluster analysis provides a statistical method whereby unknown groupings of similar attributes can be identified from a mass of data and is well‐known within marketing and a wide range of other disciplines. This paper seeks to describe the use of cluster analysis in an unusual setting to classify a large sample of dyadic, highly interdependent, supply chain relationships based upon the quality of their interactions. This paper aims to show how careful attention to the detail of research design and the use of combined methods leads to results that both are useful to managers and make a contribution to knowledge.

Data relating to 55 monopolistic relationships in the UK defence procurement sector were collected. Hierarchical cluster analysis using Wards method was undertaken on scores from five dimensions measuring relationship satisfaction. The resulting clusters are described in terms of the scores on the dimensions and also in terms of their relationships with data, quantitative and qualitative, exogenous to the clusters.

The analysis reveals five distinct clusters of relationships. Statistically significant differences are evident in the scores on the five dimensions of satisfaction with respect to these clusters. These scores lead to the labels “Poor 1” “Moderate 2” “Moderate 3” and “Good 4” being assigned to the clusters. The clusters display statistically significant relationships with a number of the exogenous variables including the value of the contract and the age of the technology involved. Relationships with the exogenous qualitative data are indicative of the validity of the clusters.

This paper takes a novel approach to gaining an understanding of relationships through the use of hierarchical cluster analysis. This provides an elegant way of exposing the influences on relationship satisfaction at a disaggregate level which are not possible by taking an aggregate approach. This will be of particular interest to researchers who are seeking patterns in large data sets and practitioners who can identify better practice guidelines when working within supply chain relationships. The disaggregate approach using cluster analysis provides extraordinarily detailed insights into relationship patterns.

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the formation of industrial clusters on the obtainment of professional human resources, to verify the impact of human resources on clustering relationships and firm’s performance and to understand whether the formation of clusters can contribute to the obtainment of professional human resources and the improvement of competitiveness of enterprises. It was expected that solutions could be found to make new contributions through the verification of special economic zones (SEZs).

Using manufacturers in Taiwan’s SEZs as the subjects, this study explored the impact on the obtainment of professional human resources after the formation of industrial clusters in SEZs, through conducting and empirical study with a questionnaire survey.

The professional human resources are the essential factor for the formation of industrial clusters and the improvement of competitiveness. This study also confirmed that industries can have professional human resources by industrial clustering and that this will produce a positive impact on the enterprise clustering relationships, which can also have a positive impact on firm’s performance and can enhance the enterprise’s competitive advantage.

Industrial clustering is the key factor to attract professional human resources; industrial clusters can enhance firm’s performance; and professional human resources affect firm’s performance of enterprises.

No study has discussed the topic of clusters from the perspective of SEZs also including six export processing zone (EPZ) parks in Taiwan. This study discussed the topic using theories relating to clustering and human resources. The formation of industrial clusters can result in higher competitiveness in the face of the global market. The EPZ industrial cluster provides an excellent investment environment. Coupled with one-stop express services and geographic advantage, the land-use rate is up to 97 per cent and the per hectare output value amounts to NTD 3.2 billion, setting a successful example of an industrial cluster.

This paper aims to examine how – and whether – members of an industry cluster share knowledge through networking as a means to improving competitive advantage and, in particular, whether trust is present in the knowledge‐sharing process.

The research involved three surveys utilizing a relationship marketing orientation (RMO) that were conducted at intervals (in 2004, 2008 and 2010) in addition to interviews with key cluster members, which were also conducted over a seven‐year period.

Knowledge sharing and integration were found to mediate the relationship between RMO and competitive advantage in 2004 and 2010 but not in 2008. Lower mean scores for trust were also found in 2008.

The limitations are that the respondent numbers were small. It is recommended that one more survey is conducted in 2013 to determine whether the interventions reported here, the recruitment of new cluster staff and the continuing growth of the cluster, influence the comparative results over time.

Knowledge sharing and collaboration within industry clusters requires active and discerning facilitation, particularly where new members are concerned.

The paper adds value to the current research on industry clusters and knowledge sharing as surveys were conducted over a seven‐year period that tracked changes as the cluster grew. The findings highlight the necessity of focusing on member relationships/collaboration during times of growth and change.

An efficient policy supporting clustered business operations necessitates an appreciation of the dynamics of rivalry and collaborations among businesses. This paper postulates that variation in competition and cooperation can significantly influence the nature of business relationships among clustered businesses, which is essential for cluster policy particularly (Newlands, 2003) as most research on rivalry and cooperation in clusters have been in developed economies. The purpose of this paper is to seek to fill the gap in the literature in African clusters based on original empirical research.

The study adopts a mixed-method research design allowing for data triangulation to study two food processing clusters. The approach comprises a survey and in-depth interview with key actors along the supply chain.

The findings show that business clusters with more formal business structures tend to have minimal horizontal competition but higher vertical cooperation. Comparatively, clusters with more socially embedded milieu tend to have higher levels of cooperation and minimal competition in both vertical and horizontal relationships. The research also shows that such variations in inter-business relationships have an effect on cluster operations in terms of business access to finance, formal contract, sharing of innovation and the way they relate to different stakeholders in their supply chain.

This paper advances a critical case for international business theory on clusters in Africa to incorporate the distinctive business relationships in small and medium enterprises (SME) clusters. It also demonstrates how unique location-specific attributes of developing economies hold the key to sustaining the operations of SME-based clusters.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a clustered foreign firm’s network ties of social capital and government relationship may affect its institutional legitimacy and performance for clustered firms in emerging economies. To accomplish this task, the authors identify network ties (e.g. bridging ties and strong ties) and show, for each, the direct effects on institutional legitimacy and organizational performance. The findings show that bridging ties, strong ties, and government relationship directly and significantly impact organizational performance.

This study used the two-step approach suggested by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). The first step uses confirmatory factor analysis to validate the psychometric properties of the measurement scales. The second step then uses structural equation modeling to examine the proposed hypotheses. The statistical software LISREL 8.80 was used for the data analysis.

This paper finds that industrial clusters serve an important legitimizing function for clustered firms. The corporate ties (both bridging and strong ties), institutional legitimacy, and governmental relationships all play a positive role in organizational performance in emerging economies. The government relationships are also found to have a positive effect on institutional legitimacy. The institutional legitimacy can develop from industrial clustering. The foreign enterprises within a cluster should pay attention to their vertical and horizontal relationships.

First, the questionnaires cannot be verified if these instructions were followed in each instance (because the responses were simply returned by mail). Second, this study grouped all foreign firms into one cluster. Other foreign firms may find that culture has different effects on their organizational performances in emerging economies. Third, the relationships and impacts of various factors were not investigated within the theoretical framework proposed in this study. Fourth, the study did not address the heterogeneity of domestic and foreign firms. Fifth, the study only focusses on the textile industry.

The institutional legitimacy can develop from industrial clustering. In order to make a good impression on the local government, clustered firms should adhere to government policy, hire more local workers and buy local raw materials. The foreign enterprises in emerging economies should recognize that, being inside of an industrial cluster, it is important to have strong ties with other cluster members and to interact frequently and honestly with the relevant government agencies and organizations. To enrich resource-utilizing and reduce their liability of foreignness, foreign firms within clusters should seek to increase their firms’ network ties and establish good relationships with local governments to obtain competitive advantage.

This study aims at filling that gap by using the concepts of strong ties, bridging ties of social capital, institutional legitimacy, and government relationship to understand how clustered firms influence institutionalization through corporate strategies. The analysis not only helps extend the literature on network ties configuration, but also expands the literature on institutionalization. The study explores how clustered firms actively built up their own advantageous positions and then combine these with their original passive interests to favorably enhance their competitiveness in rapidly changing and institutionally unstable emerging economies.

First, connects existing theories to provide an integrated theoretical framework for understanding the roles of social capital and institutional legitimacy. Second, provides evidence to the literature by examining how network ties and government relationship may jointly influence the performance for clustered foreign firms in emerging economies, an area largely ignored in prior research. Third, provides one theoretical lens through which different outcomes of social capital and institutional issues can be analyzed. Fourth, the authors put forward a relationship capability and an institutional capability model to study how firms can avoid risk and obtain benefits by clustering in emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to map the cluster in the leather and shoes sector for improving the competitiveness of the firms. Toward this end, the study is organized to examine the impact of clustering on competitiveness improvement. The influence of competitive elements and performance (Porter’s diamond) and balanced score card was utilized.

A random sample of 131 respondents was chosen during the period from May 2016 to July 2016. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was applied to investigate the research model. This approach was chosen because of its ability to test casual relationships between constructs with multiple measurement items. Researchers proposed a two-stage model-building process for applying SEM. The measurement model was first examined for instrument validation, followed by an analysis of the structural model for testing associations hypothesized by the research model.

The main findings show that there is a unidirectional causal relationship between improvements of performance and achieve competitiveness and also reveal that the Palestinian shoes and leather cluster sector is vital and strong, and conclude that clustering can achieve competitiveness for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Future research can examine the relationship between clustering and innovation. The effect of clustering using other clustering models other than Porter’s model is advised to be used for future research.

The relationships among clustering and competitiveness may provide a practical clue to both, policymakers and researchers on how cluster enhances economic firms such as a skilled workforce, research, development capacity, and infrastructure. This is likely to create assets such as trust, synergy, collaboration and cooperation for improved competitiveness.

The findings of this study provide background information that can simultaneously be used to analyze relationships among factors of innovation, customer’s satisfaction, internal business and financial performance. This study also identified several essential factors in successful firms, and discussed the implications of these factors for developing organizational strategies to encourage and foster competitiveness.

This paper aims to address research gaps with regard to the relationship between market orientation and marketing performance when small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are located within a service cluster. The three main objectives of this research are to determine the effect that the cluster can have on both the market orientation of clustered companies and their marketing performance and to furthermore evaluate the effect of the market orientation of companies in the cluster on their marketing performance.

This research used executive-level data that were obtained by carrying out a survey involving a unique dataset of 133 Colombian health-related businesses located in the city of Cali (Colombia) in 2014. A system of equations was modeled using SMART PLS. This analysis was complemented by a qualitative study that involved conducting in-depth interviews in six companies.

The results showed that, among the SMEs, membership in an urban services cluster did not significantly influence marketing performance or the implementation of marketing orientation practices. No differences were observed in internal managerial practices implemented between companies that were co-located and isolated. However, a higher level of competitor orientation was associated with greater marketing performance. Given the verified absence of moderating and mediating effects, our work provides a reasonable basis for proposing future research and practical recommendations.

While research has demonstrated the relationship between a company's market orientation and marketing performance, this type of analysis has not been carried out on service SMEs in geographic concentrations or clusters.

本文旨在處理涉及市場導向與營銷績效間的關係的研究缺口. 當中小型企業處於服務群集內, 市場導向與其營銷績效間存在相互關係；本文旨在處理涉及這關係的研究缺口. 本研究有以下的主要目標：（1）找出群集對群集公司的市場導向及其營銷績效兩者的影響；（2）繼而評估在群集內公司的市場導向對其營銷績效的影響.

本研究使用透過進行一項調查而取得的管理階層數據，而這調查涉及於2014年位於卡利市（哥倫比亞）133間與健康衛生有關的哥倫比亞企業的獨特資料集。一個方程式體系透過使用SmartPLS被模擬出來. 這分析有個補充輔助，就是一個涉及在六間公司內進行的深層訪談的質性研究.

研究結果顯示，就有關的中小型企業而言，擁有城市服務群集身份並沒顯著地影響營銷績效或市場導向慣常做法的施行。對處於同一地點的公司，抑或是隔離的公司，其內部施行的管理慣常做法並沒觀察到有所不同。但是，高水平的競爭者導向與更佳的營銷績效兩者是相關的。考慮到調節及仲介效果被證實不存在，我們的研究為日後研究及實際建議的提出提供合理的基礎.

從前的研究證實了公司的市場導向與營銷績效是相關的，唯這類研究分析從來沒有在地理集中或群集內的服務中小型企業上進行過.

There are contradicted perspectives on relationship between geographic cluster and competitive advantage of firms in previous research. Extant research has paid extremely attention to the effect of both geographic cluster and industrial network on firms’ performance; however, little studies have delineated the relationship between geographic cluster, industrial network, and competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that firms within the same cluster that have established idiosyncratic network resources have stronger competitive advantages than firms that have not.

An empirical study of two prominent geographic clusters from Taiwan is analyzed by structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that the degree of networking does play a mediating role between geographic cluster and competitive advantage, which may help resolve the conflicting results obtained by researchers on the influence of clusters on competitive advantage. The results also find that both degree of networking and betweenness position are conducive to the pursuit of competitive advantage.

The research shows that firms merely locate themselves in the right cluster does not guarantee they can outperform their rivals. Rather, developing of network relationship with other firms proximate to the same cluster will strengthen a firm's competitive advantages.

In the theoretical perspective, this paper attempts to fill the gap in the links between clusters, networks, and competitive advantage by providing that the networking as a mechanism for firms in a cluster to improve their competitive advantage.

In the context of Saudi Arabia, this chapter investigates how clustering promotes knowledge sharing and transfer in an emerging, government-directed industry cluster. It is determined that lateral actors play a key facilitating role, and formal and informal mechanisms and interpersonal links among actors support that cluster knowledge exchange. Limited social capital strength and depth and a lack of trust that prevents knowledge sharing are partially explained by the cluster's limited vertical and horizontal actors.