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

Department of Geography, University of Sheffceld, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK, h.watts{at}sheffield.ac.uk

A.M. Wood

Departmeret of Geography, University of Oklahoma, 100 East Boyd Street, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-1007, USA, amwood{at}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{at}eaststaffsbc.gov.uk

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.

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