'Making Friends or Making Things?': Interfirm Transactions in the Sheffield Metal-working Cluster

H.D. Watts, A.M. Wood and P. Wardle
Additional contact information
H.D. Watts: Department of Geography, University of Sheffceld, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK, h.watts@sheffield.ac.uk
A.M. Wood: Departmeret of Geography, University of Oklahoma, 100 East Boyd Street, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-1007, USA, amwood@ou.edu.P
P. Wardle: Regeneration and Partnerships Department, East Staffordshire Borough Council, Midland Grain Warehouse, Derby Street, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, DE14 2JJ, UK, perry.wardle@eaststaffsbc.gov.uk

Urban Studies, 2003, vol. 40, issue 3, 615-630

Abstract: The paper comprises an examination of the material inputs of a sample of 70 small firms in the Sheffield metal-working cluster and an assessment of the extent to which purchases are accompanied by face-to-face (embodied) transactions. It is shown that there are no significant differences between the level of embodied transactions accompanying local (intra-cluster) material links and those associated with non-local flows. It seems that, on this measure at least and within this cluster, the Sheffield metal-working cluster lacks the dense network of embodied transactions with local suppliers suggested in the wider literature. The lower-than-expected measures of embodied transactions suggest that one of the mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge between buyers and suppliers within an industrial cluster is poorly developed in this particular case.

Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/0042098032000053950 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:40:y:2003:i:3:p:615-630

DOI: 10.1080/0042098032000053950

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().