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

Chapter 11 – Governance and Performance in Seaport Clusters; Results of the Cases 173
the port cluster. Thus, even though internationalization is not regarded as a CAP, in specific
cases collective arrangements are created.
The internationalization regime; conclusions from the cases
The majority of experts indicate that internalization is a collective action problem.
Consequently, collective arrangements add to the quality of the internationalization regime.
However, the three case studies show that only one port specific arrangement, the
Rotterdam Maritime Group exists. In all the other regimes, firms hardly cooperate in the field
of internationalization. Even though the experts indicate that some sort of ‘community spirit’
in a cluster would enable the internationalization in the cluster, there is no clear set of
possibilities for collective action. Suggestions include:
• Large firms enabling the internationalization of small firms.
• Collective representation in foreign trade fairs.
• Collective learning of international developments, for instance through seminars.
Even though these suggestions have been made and in some cases firms have grouped
together, the benefits of collective action are small compared to some of the other regimes.
11.5 The importance of the variables related to cluster governance
One survey question addresses the issue of the importance of the four variables related to
the governance of the cluster. The experts were asked to rank these variables from 1 (most
important) to 4 (least important). Table 72 shows the results.