Relational resources in value adding webs: The case of a Southern Danish firm cluster

SummaryCluster initiatives are a popular instrument of public policy everywhere in the world. This development acknowledges that the organisational units that create added value are not solely isolated individual businesses, but often networks of actors. Our research has the objective to better understand value creation of single firms embedded in clusters in terms of overlapping value adding webs of single firms. The fact that a core source of value creation is rooted within networks raises the question of the impact of social capital on relational rents. The main objective of this paper therefore is to investigate how value creation on the relational level of a cluster can be systematised to come to a better understanding of valuable (shared) resources. Specifically in this context our aim is to conceptualise the impact of a cluster management on the creation of so-called Burt and Coleman rents. Empirically the study investigates a regional cluster in Southern Jutland in Denmark. We found that the horizontal actors in the cluster see the core of initiated cluster activities rather on the edge of their business activities but at the same time highlight the high value of informal cluster structures. Next to theoretical implications, the paper develops implications for the cluster firms as well as the cluster management in its role as a broker and a moderator.

► Social and symbolic capital are vital relational resources.
► Social capital understood as a strategic relational resource has the potential to generate value for member companies.
► To develop and to foster social capital a linking pin between formal and informal rules has to be established.
► A proactive cluster manager in the role of a broker is a precondition in the process of rent creation on the web level.