Measuring Clustering Benefits and Competitiveness: What Do Players Really Value?

Clustering bestows a beneficial environment by providing potential access to valuable local resources and favourable conditions that contribute to creating competitive advantage for firms. This paper presents a novel approach by integrating two research frameworks, one from each of economic geography and country marketing planning, to measure the benefits and competitiveness of the Singapore Financial Centre. A combination of a general benefits analysis and an importance performance analysis highlights the existence of important relationships and captures the needs of players within a cluster. Thirty-three personal interviews provide the exploratory dataset and illustrate the approach. This paper is relevant both to policymakers keen to develop, or initiate clusters, as well as academics and practitioners interested in the study of international competitiveness. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]