The Performance of Seaport Clusters - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

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The Performance of Seaport Clusters
networks (Blackburn et al, 1993). External networks guarantee that a cluster remains open
for new developments. Such networks increase the ‘propensity to change’ (see Best, 1990).
Associations can play a role in an internationalization regime, for instance by providing
information, by monitoring export regulations, by organizing collective representation and by
acting as a ‘bridging tie’. A public port authority can engage in similar activities to reduce the
barriers to internationalization. The internationalization of terminal operators has been
analyzed, but arrangements to support the internationalization of firms in a port cluster have
not been studied.
Marketing and promotion is a fourth CAP. Marketing and promotion activities in seaports can
have two goals: first, to attract companies to the port cluster; and second, to attract cargo to
the port. Both activities have collective good characteristics: firms benefit indirectly from
these marketing efforts, but these benefits cannot be priced (in advance). Van Klink and Van
Winden (1999) have analyzed the ‘port marketing regime’ in Hamburg and Rotterdam. In
Hamburg a collective marketing organization integrates services of the different associated
firms into ‘packages’ for potential customers. In Rotterdam, the marketing organization plays
a much more limited role (Van Klink and Van Winden, 1999).
Hinterland access is a fifth CAP. Hinterland access is crucial for the attractiveness of
seaports (Kreukels and Wever, 1998). Individual firms cannot fully appropriate the benefits
of a good hinterland access: a variety of firms in the cluster receive benefits. Thus, collective
action could generate resources to improve the hinterland access.
An important issue in this respect is the role of inland nodes in a port network. Van Klink
(1995) convincingly argues that ports benefit from creating networks with inland nodes.
Investments of the port authority, together with private port operators and other
stakeholders, can improve the hinterland access. In some ports port authorities and firms in
the port cluster do invest in hinterland nodes, examples include investments of Marseilles in
Lyon, Amsterdam in Duisburg and Hamburg in a variety of eastern European countries.
Such investments can be analyzed as the results of the ‘hinterland access regime’.
The role of port authorities
The role of the (public) port authority in port clusters differs substantially from public
involvement in other clusters. The role of the port authority is discussed frequently (see
Goss, 1990A and 1990B, and Stevens, 1999), but not from the perspective that a port is a