Vantagem competitiva para micro, pequenas e médias empresas: clusters e APLs. Competitive advantage for SMes: clusters and LPA

Micro, small, and medium-sized companies, as a result of globalization and its impositions, have been seeking to achieve competitive advantage for their survival in the market. Many seek to associate themselves in local networks such as clusters and local productive arrangements to face the competition with large companies. This article studies, by means of a theoretical essay, the advantages of this association registered in the national and international literature. Fourteen advantages were detected, which are divided into advantages of agglomeration power and of sharing activities and processes. The archetype elaborated will serve as a basis for empirical studies, in order to illustrate its suitability to the reality of the companies participating in this type of network