Strategic competitiveness in maritime clusters

For decades, research into the domain of maritime clusters has provided interesting results, for practice and academia alike. The body of knowledge has crystalized into the conclusive importance of these types of clusters for regional and even national competitiveness, rendering lateral implications for strategy and policy. Even though the general premise of the literature has been founded, research into distinctive facets of these industrial entities is sparse. The latter includes quantitative analysis of variables that hold a definitive impact for strategic management within clusters. The objective of the present work is to address this gap in the research, through exploratory data mining among the factors that affect competitiveness in maritime clusters. Within a structured review of the body of knowledge concerning maritime clusters, an inventory of strategic factors is extracted. These factors are sorted per Likert-type importance and exploratory cluster analysis is conducted. Through this methodology, items with strong correlations are grouped and an importance-based narrative for the competitiveness of maritime clusters is developed. The results of this research can be further utilized for benchmarking purposes within the realm of managerial practice, inclusive of the fields of policy and strategy. In addition, this work can provide a stepping-stone for future research, as many qualitative and quantitative instruments may be utilized to validate or challenge the results generated herein.