IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/entreg/v31y2019i1-2p119-132.html

External cooperation and entrepreneurial orientation in industrial clusters

Author

Listed:
  • Rafał Kusa
  • Daniel Palacios Marques
  • Belén Ribeiro Navarrete

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between external cooperation and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). This relationship is explored in cluster environment, wherein entrepreneurial organizations compete and cooperate simultaneously to pursue opportunities. The following hypothesis is tested: External cooperation is positively correlated with entrepreneurial orientation. The hypothesis is tested with a correlation analysis on a sample of 77 small-sized enterprises operating in the Malopolska region in Poland, wherein several clusters are active. Additionally, the regression analysis is conducted to examine the associations between inter-organizational cooperation and EO dimensions. The findings confirm that external cooperation is positively correlated with EO. This observation is confronted with a pro-competitive approach that is a constitutional element of the entrepreneurship concept. Moreover, the findings show that the correlation between external cooperation and a firm’s performance is stronger than between some other EO dimensions and performance. Additionally, the findings show the important role of relationships between organizations and their clients. In the paper, several remarks for development of the theory are discussed, including the need for incorporating inter-organizational cooperation into a set of entrepreneurial traits and reflecting it in entrepreneurial orientation scales. The findings confirm the importance of that direction of theory development that focuses on inter-organizational collaboration in the context of entrepreneurship.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafał Kusa & Daniel Palacios Marques & Belén Ribeiro Navarrete, 2019. "External cooperation and entrepreneurial orientation in industrial clusters," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1-2), pages 119-132, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:31:y:2019:i:1-2:p:119-132
    DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2018.1537151
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985626.2018.1537151
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08985626.2018.1537151?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

    for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Xu, Rui & Felzensztein, Christian, 2025. "Do conflicts in cooperation matter to open innovation? An empirical study of industrial clusters in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    2. Tobias König, 2023. "Between collaboration and competition: co‐located clusters of different industries in one region—the context of Tuttlingen's medical engineering and metal processing industries," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 288-325, April.
    3. Zofia Gródek-Szostak & Marcin Suder & Rafał Kusa & Jakub Sikora & Marcin Niemiec, 2020. "Effectiveness of Instruments Supporting Inter-Organizational Cooperation in the RES Market in Europe. Case Study of Enterprise Europe Network," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Francisco J. Santos & Carmen Guzmán & Lidia Valiente, 2025. "Entrepreneurship and innovation in worker cooperatives and conventional firms: the role of external cooperation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 1415-1431, March.
    5. Santiago Gutiérrez-Broncano & Jorge Linuesa-Langreo & Pablo Ruiz-Palomino & Graça Miranda Silva, 2024. "How and when CEO servant leaders fuel firm innovation: the role of social capital and knowledge absorptive capacity," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 2729-2761, December.
    6. Kusa, Rafał & Duda, Joanna & Suder, Marcin, 2022. "How to sustain company growth in times of crisis: The mitigating role of entrepreneurial management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 377-386.
    7. Nastaran Simarasl & Tchijica Henriques & Franz W. Kellermanns, 2026. "Uncovering the institutional antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation in necessity entrepreneurship: Evidence from rural Angola," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-33, March.
    8. Marcin Suder & Rafał Kusa & Joanna Duda & Jarosław Karpacz, 2025. "Exploring impact of entrepreneurial orientation on firm performance – moderators’ variability under changing market conditions," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 797-842, March.

    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:31:y:2019:i:1-2:p:119-132. 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: 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.