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

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The Performance of Seaport Clusters
generated by the members of the population. The value added consists mainly of labor
expenses, depreciation and profit (before tax).
A strong increase in the value added in one particular year can have causes that hamper the
growth of value added in the long run. A cluster where the value added increases because
wages increased substantially, or profitability is high due to the lack of internal competition,
are likely to become less competitive in the long run. Therefore, the net present value of the
future value added generated in the cluster is the best indicator of the performance of a
cluster. This indicator cannot be calculated. However, once time series of the value added
generated in a cluster become available, the influence of various variables on the
performance of clusters can be analyzed. For instance, variables such as expenses for
innovation, and the number of new establishments are likely to influence the future value
added generated in the cluster. The value added generated in year t can be written as:
Where:
n
VA ( t)
= Va ( t)
for i = {1...n}
p ∑
i=
1
i
VA is the total value added of a population P consisting of n firms,
Vai is the value added of firm i in the cluster P.
The performance of the cluster can be written as:
VAp
( t + 1)
VAp
( t + n)
CPp
( t)
= VAp
( t)
+ + .....
n
1 + r ( 1 + r)
Where r is the discount rate used to calculate the net present value over the period t to n.
3.2 Two effects that change the value added in the cluster
The value added generated in the cluster changes over time because of two effects: an
‘incumbent performance effect’ and a ‘population effect’. The first effect stems from changes
of the value added generated by the firms present in the cluster at the end of a period (t+1)
and at the beginning of a period (t). Developments such as new investments, employee lay-