Maritime Knowledge Clusters are known to facilitate regional economic growth. Nevertheless, few studies have been conducted to examine their impact on maritime firms’ performance. Drawing on organizational learning theory, this study investigates the effect of maritime knowledge clusters on the constituent maritime firms’ performance. A conceptual model was proposed and examined using survey data collected from shipping professionals in Singapore. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were employed as the data analysis approach. The results show that the positive relationship between maritime knowledge clusters and maritime firms’ performance is fully mediated by the firms’ social capital and absorptive capacity in a sequential manner. This indicates that maritime firms should focus on strengthening not only their social capital but also absorptive capacity so as to fully enjoy the benefits brought about by maritime knowledge clusters. In addition, regulators should endeavor to develop global linkage, global systemic mechanisms and local knowledge clusters to facilitate organizational learning of the constituent maritime firms.

众所周知，海上知识集群可以促进区域经济增长。然而，很少进行研究来研究它们对海运公司业绩的影响。借鉴组织学习理论，本研究调查了海上知识集群对组成海上公司业绩的影响。提出了一个概念模型，并使用了从新加坡航运专业人员那里收集的调查数据进行了检验。验证性因素分析和结构方程建模被用作数据分析方法。结果表明，海洋知识集群与海洋企业绩效之间的正相关关系完全由企业的社会资本和吸收能力以顺序的方式介导。这表明海事公司不仅应着重于增强其社会资本，而且应着重吸收能力，以便充分享受由海事知识集群带来的利益。此外，监管机构应努力发展全球联系，全球系统机制和地方知识集群，以促进有关海事公司的组织学习。