The individual benefits of being a knowledge gatekeeper: the case of gatekeeper firms in the Rotterdam Seaport Cluster

Abstract

The literature on knowledge gatekeepers focuses on the benefits of gatekeeper presence in industrial clusters, for local firms and the cluster as a whole. The individual benefits of being a gatekeeper have been rarely investigated. Based on information of firms in the Rotterdam Seaport Cluster, we investigate whether being a gatekeeper is an attractive position to improve individual performance and innovativeness, and whether determinants of performance and innovativeness of gatekeepers are different than of local firms. The results show that being a gatekeeper is associated with better performance and innovativeness, but that firm-internal capabilities are more important when explaining performance and innovativeness. Only limited, the determinants of performance and innovativeness differ between gatekeepers and local firms.