Creative Precarious Decision-Making in the Crises of Our Time:

Emergence of creative cluster-development initiatives by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

in Samos

Eirini Skouta, Patrick Humphreys

Creative Precarious Decision-Making in the Crises of Our Time:

Emergence of creative cluster-development initiatives by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

in Samos

Eirini Skouta, Patrick Humphreys

The story is about an initiative taking place in the islands of Samos, Ikaria and Fournoi.

Samos is 200 nautical miles east of Athens and only one mile from Asia Minor, while Ikaria and Fournoi are close to Samos to the West.

The story is about an initiative taking place in the islands of Samos, Ikaria and Fournoi.

Samos is 200 nautical miles east of Athens and only one mile from Asia Minor, while Ikaria and Fournoi are close to Samos to the West.

The Setting

The Setting

The islands’ economy relies primarily on tourism and agriculture, but transport of goods and people to and from the islands is difficult.

Ferries from the islands to Athens take 15 hours each way. Their only airport is on Samos: most air passengers have to fly via Athens. Although package tour airplanes fly directly to Samos, there has been a reduction of 50% in flights over the past 2 years

The islands’ economy relies primarily on tourism and agriculture, but transport of goods and people to and from the islands is difficult.

Ferries from the islands to Athens take 15 hours each way. Their only airport is on Samos: most air passengers have to fly via Athens. Although package tour airplanes fly directly to Samos, there has been a reduction of 50% in flights over the past 2 years

The cluster is brought together due to SMEs’ motivation to cope with:

Lack of infrastructure; for transport, for water supply

Neglect

Corruption

Financial and social crisis (cuts in income and financing for both the public and private sector).

Need for survival

It has to find collaborative and innovative solutions.

The cluster is brought together due to SMEs’ motivation to cope with:

Lack of infrastructure; for transport, for water supply

Neglect

Corruption

Financial and social crisis (cuts in income and financing for both the public and private sector).

Need for survival

It has to find collaborative and innovative solutions.

The Problems

SME Cluster Overview

Cluster focuses on initiatives to promote tourism – especially alternatives to the “standard” package tourism: support for individual travelers, ecotourism, agro-tourism, etc.

involves service providers as well as producers

Cluster formation started bottom-up in Spring 2011

Cluster focuses on initiatives to promote tourism – especially alternatives to the “standard” package tourism: support for individual travelers, ecotourism, agro-tourism, etc.

involves service providers as well as producers

Cluster formation started bottom-up in Spring 2011

Business focus of the Cluster SMEs

Serviceslead

Productsfollow

SME Cluster Initiation

Obstacles:

- Greeks typically don’t like working in teams.

- Harsh competition as the way to do business.

- Everything the SME does, needs to be approved and accepted by the municipality.

- Up until recently, businesses expected the active help and support of the local authorities, but nowadays the mayors have no resources for this.

Obstacles:

- Greeks typically don’t like working in teams.

- Harsh competition as the way to do business.

- Everything the SME does, needs to be approved and accepted by the municipality.

- Up until recently, businesses expected the active help and support of the local authorities, but nowadays the mayors have no resources for this.

Needs:

- Many motivators required to foster collaboration

- Essential role for cluster coordinator: Get SMEs to consider collaborative advantage and overcome co-opetition anxiety

- Even bottom-up cluster building starts with the mayor

But, all resources for cluster building have to come from the SMEs themselves rather than the municipality.

SME Cluster Initiation Agent

Independent agent to facilitate the cluster initiation process: BioEnersis, a SME focusing on consulting,training of rrofessionals andEvent planning

Goals:Developing a cluster of enterprises in the Aegean region and Greece.Planning and attaining innovations for the development of entrepreneurship.

BioEnersis’ SME Clustering Process

SME Clustering: meeting cycleMeeting with all SMEs that want to be involved. ideas for initiatives gaining collaborative advantage?? an event which could realise most of these ideas??

Talk to and gain the approval of the local authority.

Meeting with Cluster SMEs to plan the event event collectively. o Identify possible problems: e.g. communication or co-opetition

anxiety problems. o Identify SMEs that should be invited to join cluster

Meetings with individual SMEs to work on problems identified in the collective meeting.

Meeting with the whole SME group: all agree that previously identified problems have been resolved?? new problems arising??

if issues still need to be resolved, continue cycle of individual and collective meetings with SMEs.

BioEnersis’ SME Clustering Process

Discussing with local authorities and cluster representative.

Addressing issues individually...

Collective cluster meetings.

... and collectively.

Fourniada is an annual 3-day sports event promoting Greek-Turkish friendship since 2003. However, thanks to BioEnersis’contribution, and the Cluster SMEs activities, in 2011 the event has been very successful,

compared to the past.

An example: Fourniada

The successful outcome of Fourniada enhanced the SMEs’commitment to the cluster and strengthened their relationshipsand trust. BUT it provoked negative reactions from the side of the localmunicipality that felt excluded and regarded the cluster’s actionsas competitive.

As a result, until recently, the cluster SMEs founded and operating inFournoi, felt potentially threatened by the municipality and theirwillingness on producing similar events in the area, diminished due tothe sense of insecurity transmitted by the local authorities’ reactions.

Fourniada: The Outcome

BioEnersis viewed this incident as an opportunity to reassess boththe situation and the circumstances leading to it, as to avoidsimilar problems in the future.

Therefore, in the first part of 2012 BioEnersis continued theindividual and collective meeting cycle in order to:

re-establish lost trust between SMEs and local authorities, motivate the SMEs to look past the authorities’ impending response,

where this is possible, find a strategy that will enable the cluster to produce events without

causing the potential negative response of the authorities and finally, find a strategy that will not allow municipalities to view cluster

activities as competitive ones.

A New Strategy for Cluster Events

New strategy good in practice?

Video Case Study in progress:Completion in August 2012 and available for distribution to those interested.

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