Collaboration or opportunism? The role of social capital in developing successful export clusters

Abstract

This paper reports on an exploratory study into social capital and its influence on the development of horizontal export-focused industry clusters for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). The paper contends that higher levels of social capital within firms can be externalized to other firms in industry clusters, and this makes the cluster more effective in international markets. The study assessed the levels of social capital evident within nine individual SMEs based in South East Queensland, Australia, across three different industry clusters. The study evaluated attitudes of the firm towards its other cluster members and found that higher levels of social capital within individual SMEs, was being externalized to their industry cluster, and this helped the firms to develop long-term relationships, develop common objectives and improve levels of trust among members. Higher levels of exposure in international markets, was evident in such firms in the cluster.