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The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has been applied to territories, although academia has not frequently undertaken exploration of RBV applied to clusters in an empirical base. The goal of this paper aims at empirically translating RBV to the territory with a double objective. First, the work seeks to understand which are the cluster's resources and capabilities. Second, the paper evaluates whether a cluster's unique set of resources and capabilities could influence a cluster's performance. Research is applied to leading European ceramic tile clusters located in Spain (Castellon) and Italy (Emilia-Romagna). Comparing clusters in the same industry allows benchmarking and the metrics make more sense. Secondary data and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with managers from the R&D Institutes, institutional agents and Castellon (59) and Emilian (19) firms assess a cluster's resources and capabilities. The employed variables address skilled labour availability, social capital, linkages, business sophistication and network effects. In addition, and through the utilization of financial and productivity data the work analyses whether there are performance differences. Results indicate that clusters have a unique set of resources and capabilities and a certain performance level. On the whole, a cluster's unique set of resources and capabilities matter. The paper offers a methodological approach to tackle empirically the RBV application to clusters.

This paper analyses how the internal resources of small-and medium-sized enterprises determine access (learning processes) to technology centres (TCs) or industrial research institutes (innovation infrastructure) in traditional low-tech clusters. These interactions basically represent traded (market-based) transactions, which constitute important sources of knowledge in clusters. The paper addresses the role of TCs in low-tech clusters, and uses semi-structured interviews with 80 firms in a manufacturing cluster. The results point out that producer-user interactions are the most frequent; thus, the higher the sector knowledge-intensive base, the more likely the utilization of the available research infrastructure becomes. Conversely, the sectors with less knowledge-intensive structures, i.e. less absorptive capacity (AC), present weak linkages to TCs, as they frequently prefer to interact with suppliers, who act as transceivers of knowledge. Therefore, not all the firms in a cluster can fully exploit the available research infrastructure, and their AC moderates this engagement. In addition, the existence of TCs is not sufficient since the active role of a firm's search strategies to undertake interactions and conduct openness to available sources of knowledge is also needed. The study has implications for policymakers and academia.