Abstract
<div><strong>Purpose:</strong> This study was carried out with the aim of exploring the effects of export clusters formation on export performance of SMEs in Iranian energy industry.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Methodology/Approach:</strong> The study was undertaken through having three case studies, each on a different export cluster currently active within Iranian energy industry. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with both managers and members of each export cluster as well as study of their archival documents. </div><div> </div><div><strong>Findings:</strong> The results confirmed that all three export clusters managed to successfully identify their members’ needs and undertook certain measures within their own authority and control, to mitigate these risks. Moreover, the secondary data showed positive growth rate of export level after the establishment of these export clusters. Interestingly, the strong suits of all three export clusters were mainly related to communication and relationship aspects. These three factors were: ability to create Informal Network within members, Public Relations and Training/Consultation. </div><div> </div><div><strong>Research Limitation/implication:</strong> This study was limited to the export clusters in Iranian energy industry, and on a cross-sectional time horizon basis. It therefore cannot be generalized to all industries and we might witness certain changes in findings if the study is undertaken at different point in time. However, the study shed light on certain important aspects such as nature of relationships within the members of each cluster, the role of trust management and social power as well as the need to place more focus on SMEs in export clusters.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Originality/Value of paper:</strong> Even though there are recently many studies on the concept of export clusters and their positive impacts on the growth in export of various countries throughout the world; but so far, there had been no similar study undertaken with a focus on Iran and not enough empirical evidence had previously been provided on export clusters performance in a developing country.</div>
Highlights
1.1 BackgroundThe recent shifts in trading strategies of countries, growing liberalization, competition and integration on a world-wide basis, had made internationalization one of the main strategies of the firms who pursue growth objectives
The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of export clusters on export performance of Iranian energy industry
We looked at export clusters with focus on the services they provided to their members and the effect of such services on export performance of members
Summary
The recent shifts in trading strategies of countries, growing liberalization, competition and integration on a world-wide basis, had made internationalization one of the main strategies of the firms who pursue growth objectives. One of the first approaches towards internationalization is exporting. Level of exports became one of the main criteria in assessing the success of industries in many countries during the past two decades. Export-performance even acts as a mean to evaluate the strength of that economy (Oyewole, 2001). Due to the risky nature of operating in international markets, many companies who attempted to enter these markets had suffered from huge losses. A successful domestic company cannot necessarily be successful in international markets as well (Bianchi and Ostale, 2006)
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