Location decisions: Does the Netherlands peaks?

Abstract

With the ‘Pieken in de Delta’ document the Dutch Government emphasizes the development of spatial clusters of related businesses. Therefore, this thesis examines if the strategic location decisions of firms in the Netherlands contributed to the cluster process in the ‘pieken’, and how this can be explained. The theory shows that companies can base their location decision on many different factors. Some of them appear to encourage the companies to cluster, the so called cluster factors. The analysis of the DLN (Database Locatiebeslissingen Nederland) shows that the strategic location decisions have contributed to the agglomeration process in the ‘piek’ Food & Nutrition for the eastern region of the Netherlands, Agribusiness for the northern region, Creative Industries/ICT/New Media for the Randstad North wing, Process Industry and Logistics for the southwest region. Cluster factors aren’t important for every company that settles in one of the ‘pieken’. Also it appears that cluster factors aren’t always more important for companies that choose to locate in a ‘piek’ then for companies that locate outside a ‘piek’. Furthermore the importance of cluster factors varies across sectors. For example the cluster factors were decisive for the companies that settled in the ‘pieken’ Logistics and High-Tech Systems and Materials, but this wasn’t the case for the settlers in the ‘pieken’ Creative Industries/ICT/New Media and Process Industry. This makes clear that companies for which cluster factors are important not always locate in ‘pieken’; this varies by sector.