From Cognitive to Organisational Proximity - Insights on Resilience of Clusters from the Sport Industry

Sport clusters can be defined as geographical concentrations of private, public, and non-profitorganizations in a denominated area with a shared interest in one or similar sports. This paper addresses the following question: how does socioeconomic proximity – linkages between organizations or individuals which go beyond spatial proximity – influence the development and properties of sport clusters? This qualitative study investigates four sport clusters in surfing and sailing. The findings indicate that there are two types of sport clusters based on different forms of socioeconomic proximity. The surfing clusters are characterized by cognitive proximity based on convergent perceptions and managerial practices. The sailing clusters are characterzed by organizational proximity based on complementarity. This article (1) discusses the resilience properties of these two types of clusters and (2) proposes a two-step model of cluster development. This research has implications for policy makers and cluster members by showing that clusters should be considered to be social constructions that go through different stages.