Together and yet apart: Probing non-cooperation in the Herøya Industrial Park

Abstract

Cluster theory reveals that, there exist benefits to be gained from inter-firm cooperation. This is suggestive that cluster-related benefits supersede mere co-location, and that firms must actually cooperate to reap these benefits. The aim of this research was to explore factors that must be in place for firms to benefit from co-location, attention paid to benefits derived from inter-firm cooperation rather than the sharing of public goods and infrastructure. This was done employing the case of the Herøya Industrial Park, Porsgrunn-Norway, where firms are reportedly focused on public-goods benefits, to explore inter-firm relations in the Industrial park, regarding the progression of collaboration in the park. Concurrently, Herøya is compared to the Eyde Cluster – Southern Norway, which having recently attained a cluster status, can be described as a step ahead of Herøya regarding cooperation, and is constitute of similar industries. Assessment of Eyde is done in six areas namely; inter-firm linkages, dealing with security, presence of commons, support and cluster constitution, from which three levels of cluster cooperation arise. Results reveal that, while certain factors moderate working together in the Herøya Industrial park, there yet exist features that could serve as a leverage for cooperation. However, considering the need for cooperation at all, it is a finding that with similar features in place that foster cooperation in other places, Herøya may be ‘unique’ and not presently disposed to establishing the level of inter-firm linkages characteristic of ‘working’ clusters given that certain factors that justify the need to collaborate must be in place