Dancing to success: export groups as dance parties and the implications for network development

Export grouping schemes are a commonly used vehicle for promoting international competitiveness, but their success rate is patchy. A perennial problem is the value of continuing the formal group structure itself. In this paper we examine the nature and role of export groups using the results from two in‐depth Australian case studies. The focus of analysis is on export groups as structuring devices rather than structures. They are viewed as action learning exercises in which knowledge and resource creating and self‐organizing processes are nurtured, these processes in turn shaping the evolution of interfirm relations and networks. Building on earlier work by Wilkinson and Young the dance metaphor is extended to depict and analyze export groups as dance parties. Dance themes are used to illustrate and dramatize issues arising in the design, development and evaluation of export grouping schemes and are related to the real experience of the two case studies examined.