 A Matter of Distrust: Explaining the Persistence of Dysfunctional Beliefs in Regional ClustersUdo Staber Growth and Change, 2007, vol. 38, issue 3, 341-363 Abstract: ABSTRACT Much theoretical writing on regional clusters is based on a functionalist and normative view of trust‐based social exchange underlying innovativeness and competitiveness. Empirical research, however, reports many cases of clusters that are best characterized as loosely connected agglomerations of firms, driven by intense distrust and rivalry, rather than trust and cooperation, and with outcomes that may or may not be advantageous. The aim of this paper is to offer a microlevel Darwinian explanation for the persistence of distrust in clusters. From the “meme's eye view,” a cluster may be understood as a cultural phenomenon that is created and reproduced by human agents as they selectively perceive and enact the ideas that draw their attention. The outcome is not necessarily a distribution of ideas that benefits the individual members of the cluster or enhances the performance of the cluster as a whole. This paper outlines the general evolutionary principles involved in this process and applies them in a discussion of some of the conditions under which ideas related to distrust may be selected and reproduced. Date: 2007 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:growch:v:38:y:2007:i:3:p:341-363 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Growth and Change is currently edited by Dan Rickman and Barney Warf More articles in Growth and Change from Wiley Blackwell |
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