Descriptive analysis of factors that influence economical results in the furniture cluster of Bento Gonçalves

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze factors that can influence the competitiveness of companies in the furniture cluster of Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul. By a literature review, we identify four factors that can influence competition in clusters: the region's productivity, innovation, relationship with suppliers, and cooperation between companies. The research method is the single case study. The research techniques are the review of specific bibliographic and documentation of the studied cluster, and interviews with experts of the cluster. The main findings are: the cluster has high productivity, mainly by hi-tech machinery employed by the main companies; innovation is permanent and motivated by the imposition to medium and short companies of business goals by the main companies; the relationship with suppliers is problematic regarding the large-scale vendors by the lack of the practice of collective purchases in the area; and cooperation between enterprises is small, by the culture of the region that don´t appreciate depending on resources available outside the companies. Such factors can contribute to produce hypotheses for further research.