Entrepreneurial networking capacity of cluster firms: a social network perspective on how shared resources enhance firm performance

This paper examines the entrepreneurial networking capacity of firms in leveraging shared resources in clusters to achieve market performance. Defining industrial clusters from a social network perspective and entrepreneurial networking capacity as the capacity of firms in orchestrating relational-based resources to achieve enhanced performance and build competitive advantage, this paper analysed the influences of regional shared resources derived from entrepreneurial networking capacity on firm market performance. This paper used the primary data collected from the 65 wine regions (GIs) in Australia and tested the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling. The results show the unique roles of different types of cluster shared resources in enhancing firm market performance. We contribute to further development of the social network theory, the resource-based view, entrepreneurship and cluster theory and provide grounds for closer examination of how the context of industrial clusters influences the resource-based competitive advantage of firms.

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