| dc.description.abstract | The objective of this paper is to provide an understanding of how the offshore drilling technology supplier industry in the southern Norway has achieved its success, and the factors contributing to the growth. The context is the development of the Norwegian Offshore & Drilling Engineering (NODE) cluster. This is a cluster that incorporates companies that not only dominates the Norwegian offshore sector, but also represents 90 percent of drilling technologies used worldwide. During the past decades, the concept of clustering has been adapted in several different industries. This is because clustering arguably gives competitive advantage for a geographically concentrated group of interconnected companies and associated institutions. The concept promotes both competition and cooperation in a particular industry, linked by commonalities and complementarities. The growth of the offshore drilling technology supplier segment in Kristiansand can not only be defined as a cluster in a theoretical sense, it is also to a large degree inspired by theories of Porter. In this study, Porter s theories are extended by adding human factors. These human factors are influenced by other cluster theories. By doing so, both the human factors and physical factors will present a strong basis for answering the research question of this paper. By exploring the human and physical factors in the cluster, and by reviewing the history bound to the region, the paper gives an understanding and a description of the cluster s development. This research shows that human factors are an important contribution to the growth and success of the regional cluster. Another finding is that the formation and formality of the cluster itself does not represent the main building block, in comparison to what the literature so often suggests. Keywords: cluster, regional context, Diamond model, Nine-Factor model, physical factors, human factors, petroleum industry, drilling technology, Kristiansand, Norway, offshore drilling, | eng |