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

Chapter 7 – Analyzing the Performance of Seaport Clusters 77
2. Questions to find out the opinion of the respondents with regard to a number of
propositions, derived from the theoretical framework. The experts are asked to indicate
whether or not they agree with the propositions. In some cases the propositions are
relatively obvious 53 . These propositions were added for the sake of completeness - all
the variables of the framework are tested this way - and because what is obvious for
certain academics might not be obvious for industry professionals. When possible,
alternative propositions were tested (as suggested by Yin, 1994).
3. Questions to assess the relative importance of the various variables of cluster
performance. Apart from the validity of a variable, the survey questions address the
issue of the importance of a variable, compared to other variables.
4. Questions to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the case study port with
competing port clusters. These results can be compared with reports and studies to
cross check for consistency and to assess the quality of governance, compared to
competing ports. This provides a basis for analyzing which governance arrangements
are effective.
The survey results are used to identify expert opinions in a port cluster. We test whether
expert opinions differ between the port clusters or are the same across the three cases 54 . In
the latter case, expert opinions do not depend on the local context and can be expected to
be the same in all (port) clusters 55 .
A division of experts can be made between experts with over 20 years of experience in the
port industry and experts with less experience, and experts working for small organizations
53 An example is the proposition: ‘A culture of trust increases the quality of the governance
because it lowers transaction costs and enables co-operation’.
54 Comparing cases should be done with precaution: cultural differences (instead of ‘real’
differences) might explain different responses. We claim this cultural ‘distortion’ is of minor
importance, given the international nature of the port industry and the fact that all three cases
are ‘western’.
55 Yin (1994) objects against adding surveys from different cases, because it implies a study is a
survey instead of a case study, is acknowledged. However, adding the surveys offers an
opportunity to test whether it is plausible that hypotheses hold for (port) clusters in general.