Lack of coordination among contract cleaning companies: Too close for comfort

Geographical proximity between firms is often believed to favour cooperation, mutual learning, knowledge creation and innovation. Simply put, ‘space matters’. However, all too often a direct line is drawn from geographical proximity to innovation without specifying the links between the two. The link between space, cooperation and innovation has recently been the subject of much debate. This paper adds to this debate by exploring a geographically proximate cluster which does not cooperate and acts in ways that are damaging to the clusters members individual and collective interests. Following Boschma (2005) we look at five dimensions of proximity: cognitive, organisational, social, institutional and geographical, to understand why the companies behave as they do. We argue that in addition to these five dimensions it is important to understand how the dimensions interrelate.