IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/entreg/v18y2006i3p185-205.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Owner-managers, clusters and local embeddedness: small firms in the Sheffield (UK) metal-working cluster

Author

Listed:
  • H. Doug Watts
  • Andrew M. Wood
  • Perry Wardle

Abstract

The primary objective of this paper is to explore the ways in which the characteristics of owner-managers influence the extent to which their firms are embedded within local clusters of economic activity. Data are drawn from an interview survey of a random sample of small metal-working firms in Sheffield, UK. The data are analysed using non-parametric statistical methods to test bivariate relationships. Owner-manager attributes are found to have no influence on the extent of the use of local material supply networks but they do influence the extent of dependence on local markets. Owner-managers born and bred in the local region with limited formal education, working as an operative (rather than executive) prior to start up and with many years experience are more likely to rely on local markets. Owner-manager characteristics are also linked to participation in business networks. Those with most experience and those previously working for large firms are more likely to participate. It is concluded that owner-manager attributes can be important in explaining the level of embeddedness of small firms in a cluster of economic activity and that such attributes need to be built into theories of cluster behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • H. Doug Watts & Andrew M. Wood & Perry Wardle, 2006. "Owner-managers, clusters and local embeddedness: small firms in the Sheffield (UK) metal-working cluster," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 185-205, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:18:y:2006:i:3:p:185-205
    DOI: 10.1080/08985620600680141
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985620600680141
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08985620600680141?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tweedale, Geoffrey, 1995. "Steel City: Entrepreneurship, Strategy, and Technology in Sheffield 1743-1993," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288664, Decembrie.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fabien Eymas & Faouzi Bensebaa, 2021. "Competitive strategies of small independent retailers," Post-Print hal-03960130, HAL.
    2. Robert Huggins & Andrew Johnston, 2009. "Knowledge Networks in an Uncompetitive Region: SME Innovation and Growth," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 227-259, June.
    3. José A. Belso-Martínez, 2015. "Resources, Governance, and Knowledge Transfer in Spanish Footwear Clusters," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 38(2), pages 202-231, April.
    4. Elisa Giuliani, 2008. "What drives innovative output in emerging clusters? Evidence from the wine industry," SPRU Working Paper Series 169, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    5. Fabien Eymas & Faouzi Bensebaa, 2021. "Competitive strategies of small independent retailers," Post-Print hal-03179166, HAL.
    6. Fabien Eymas & Faouzi Bensebaa, 2021. "Competitive strategies of entrepreneurs in the traditional service sector [Comportement concurrentiel des entrepreneurs du secteur des services traditionnels]," Post-Print hal-03960025, HAL.
    7. Fabien Eymas & Faouzi Bensebaa, 2021. "Small independant retailers: from avoidance to competitive indifference? [Petits distributeurs indépendants : de l’évitement à l’indifférence concurrentielle ?]," Post-Print hal-03960110, HAL.
    8. Massimo Baù & Francesco Chirico & Daniel Pittino & Mikaela Backman & Johan Klaesson, 2019. "Roots to Grow: Family Firms and Local Embeddedness in Rural and Urban Contexts," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(2), pages 360-385, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reece Garcia, 2022. "Steely determination? Constructions of masculinity in a former UK steelworker community," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1025-1040, July.
    2. M Raco, 1998. "Assessing ‘Institutional Thickness’ in the Local Context: A Comparison of Cardiff and Sheffield," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(6), pages 975-996, June.
    3. Gary B. Magee & Andrew S. Thompson, 2003. "Complacent Or Competitive? British Exporters And The Drift To Empire," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 889, The University of Melbourne.
    4. George Selgin, 2003. "Steam, hot air, and small change: Matthew Boulton and the reform of Britain's coinage," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 56(3), pages 478-509, August.
    5. Geoffrey Tweedale, 2013. "Backstreet capitalism: An analysis of the family firm in the nineteenth-century Sheffield cutlery industry," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 875-891, September.
    6. Andrew Popp & John Wilson, 2007. "Life Cycles, Contingency, and Agency: Growth, Development, and Change in English Industrial Districts and Clusters," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(12), pages 2975-2992, December.

    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:taf:entreg:v:18:y:2006:i:3:p:185-205. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/TEPN20 .

    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.