IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/entsoc/v19y2018i02p272-308_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Emergence of an Export Cluster: Traders and Palm Oil in Early Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia

Author

Listed:
  • GIACOMIN, VALERIA

Abstract

Malaysia and Indonesia account for 90 percent of global exports of palm oil, forming one of the largest agricultural clusters in the world. This article uses archival sources to trace how this cluster emerged from the rubber business in the era of British and Dutch colonialism. Specifically, the rise of palm oil in this region was due to three interrelated factors: (1) the institutional environment of the existing rubber cluster; (2) an established community of foreign traders; and (3) a trading hub in Singapore that offered a multitude of advanced services. This analysis stresses the historical dimension of clusters, which has been neglected in the previous management and strategy works, by connecting cluster emergence to the business history of trading firms. The article also extends the current literature on cluster emergence by showing that the rise of this cluster occurred parallel, and intimately related, to the product specialization within international trading houses.

Suggested Citation

  • Giacomin, Valeria, 2018. "The Emergence of an Export Cluster: Traders and Palm Oil in Early Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 272-308, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:entsoc:v:19:y:2018:i:02:p:272-308_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1467222717000106/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:entsoc:v:19:y:2018:i:02:p:272-308_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/eso .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.