Emergence and Transformation of Clusters and Milieus

A renewed interest in the location of the productive activity has appeared during the last two decades. The literature analyzes a great number of cases of local productive systems in which all types of activities are produced and which locate in regions and countries with different levels of development (Altenburg and Meyer-Stamer, 1999; Rosenfeld, 1997; Staber, 1997; Porter, 1998). Electronics in Silicon Valley, U.S.A. and Silicon Glen in Scotland, but also in Guadalajara, Mexico and in Penang, Malaysia; the car industry in Detroit, U.S. and in Vigo, Spain, but also in the Gran ABC in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, Brazil; ceramic tiles in Sassuolo, Italy and in Castellón, Spain, as well as in Criciuma, Brazil; the shoe industry in Brenta, Italy and in Elche, Spain, as well as in León, Guanajuato, Mexico; textiles and the garment industry in Reutlingen, Germany and in La Coruña, España, but also in Itaji Valley, Brazil. Financial services in New York City, in London and in Frankfurt, Germany, but also in Hong Kong and Shanghai, in China. This diversity has been dealt with from different points of view; no doubt due to the fact that sociologists, geographers and economists believe that at the present time the organization of production is going through a profound transformation process. Mass production, integrated in the fordist model of large firm reduces its hegemony and gives way to more flexible forms of organization, as are industrial districts and milieus. This has produced multiple interpretations such as the industrial districts (Becattini, 1979), flexible specialization (Piore and Sabel, 1984), the new industrial spaces (Scott, 1988), industrial clusters (Porter, 1990), the knowledge economy (Cook, 2002), the new economic geography (Krugman, 1991; Fujita et al., 2000), the theory of the innovative milieu (Aydalot, 1986; Maillat, 1995), or economic sociology (Granovetter, 1985). Thus, a single unique interpretation or theory as to how production is organized within the territory does not exist for explaining the factors that make the agglomerations and industrial production centres appear, the mechanisms through which they develop, as well as the reasons for its change and transformation. Gordon and McCann (2000) conclude that the diversity of the analytical approaches led to some degree of confusion in the analyses and interpretations. The paper discusses the question of spatial organization of production from the perspective of economic development. It maintains that the spatial organization of production takes shape, as the markets and relations between cities and regions developed, the transportation and communication system consolidated itself, firms developed their form of organization, innovation and knowledge was introduced in firms and the transportation and communications system, and the economic system integrated itself as a result of globalization. In fact, given that development takes on different forms in each historical period, spatial organization of production also changes and these changes are affected by the territorial strategies of firms and the economic strategies of cities and regions, and they are responsible for the emergence and reconstruction of clusters and milieus.

"The Social Capital of Regional Dynamics: A Policy Perspective"

This paper deals with social capital as an extra-market externality, and its role for innovations and growth. It analyses the changes of innovation activity over time, from early industrialism to the global knowledge economy, how the relations between the actors of today's innovation systems have developed and the role of social networks for innovations. The different kinds of networks built by the three constructers of social networks: the individual, the organizations and the (public and civic) society are discussed. The role of public policy in building social capital for innovations and growth is analyzed.

Knowledge hubs and knowledge clusters: Designing a knowledge architecture for development.

With globalisation and knowledge-based production, firms may cooperate on a global scale, outsource parts of their administrative or productive units and negate location altogether. The extremely low transaction costs of data, information and knowledge seem to invalidate the theory of agglomeration and the spatial clustering of firms, going back to the classical work by Alfred Weber (1868-1958) and Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), who emphasized the microeconomic benefits of industrial collocation. This paper will argue against this view and show why the growth of knowledge societies will rather increase than decrease the relevance of location by creating knowledge clusters and knowledge hubs. A knowledge cluster is a local innovation system organized around universities, research institutions and firms which successfully drive innovations and create new industries. Knowledge hubs are localities with high internal and external networking and knowledge sharing capabilities. Both form a new knowledge architecture within an epistemic landscape of knowledge creation and dissemination, structured by knowledge gaps and areas of low knowledge intensity. The paper will focus on the internal dynamics of knowledge clusters and knowledge hubs and show why clustering takes place despite globalisation and the rapid growth of ICT. The basic argument that firms and their delivery chains attempt to reduce transport (transaction) costs by choosing the same location is still valid for most industrial economies, but knowledge hubs have different dynamics relating to externalities produced from knowledge sharing and research and development outputs. The paper draws on empirical data derived from ongoing research in the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University and in the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, supported by the German Aeronautics and Space Agency (DLR).

Cotton spinning to climbing gear: practical aspects of design evolution in Lancashire and the North West of England

This article looks at the role of path dependency in the design of outdoor clothing and equipment, from the perspective of changing and overlapping industrial clusters in Lancashire and Sheffield, from the 1960s. It demonstrates that, unlike the fashion market, design in mountaineering clothing and equipment was originally based heavily upon functionality and hence on user innovation. It shows that skills and knowledge which evolved during the industrial revolution, in both industrial areas, were vitally important to the development of internationally competitive mountaineering equipment firms. It was, however, the way in which these sources of knowledge were combined with sporting expertise that contributed to the design of innovative functional products. In addition, fundamental changes occurred in the relationship between manufacturers and their customers and these were vital to the success of this process, marking a departure from past practice

Business networks SMEs and inter-firm collaboration: a review of the research literature with implications for policy

This literature review, which was commissioned by the UK's Small Business Service is concerned with business networks, and their importance for the small business community. Business networks are sometimes defined as comprising only inter-firm relationships (e.g. those that exist between component supplier and a manufacturer). However, it soon becomes apparent that a broader perspective is required, if research findings are to contribute meaningful insights for policy and practice. We have therefore incorporated research evidence on personal networks, notably those associated with entrepreneurship, and on links between firms and supporting institutions, such as trade associations, government agencies and universities

Knowledge Clusters and Knowledge Hubs: Designing Epistemic Landscapes for Development

With globalization and knowledge-based production, firms may cooperate on a global scale, outsource parts of their administrative or productive units and negate location altogether. The extremely low transaction costs of data, information and knowledge seem to invalidate the theory of agglomeration and the spatial clustering of firms, going back to the classical work by Alfred Weber and Alfred Marshall, who emphasized the microeconomic benefits of industrial collocation. This paper will argue against this view and show why the growth of knowledge societies will rather increase than decrease the relevance of location by creating knowledge clusters and knowledge hubs, due to sharing of tacit knowledge and research and development outputs. Designing epistemic landscapes of knowledge clusters and hubs is, therefore, proposed as a viable development policy.knowledge governance; knowledge cluster; knowledge hub; epistemic landscape; development

Regions in the global knowledge economy

Two bodies of literature converge to explain regions in the global knowledge economy and to identify the factors that lead to competitiveness and innovation of a local economic system. The first section of this statement summarizes the progress in regional studies from a purely locational approach to the focus on clusters and industrial districts. The second part shows how advances in the economics of innovation lead to a renewed and different interest to regions and local systems of innovation. The third section concludes showing how the two trends of the literature just mentioned are instrumental to explain regions in a context where competition becomes global and increasingly based on knowledge goods and services. The focus on the “glocal” exchange of outputs of the knowledge economy is useful to explain the factors behind the rise and fall of new centers of production and growth. In this statement glocalization is defined as the phenomenon that leads to the competition, on a global market, of products and services whose successful development from the conceptualization of an idea to the actual commercial application requires enabling factors (such as institutions, entrepreneurship, knowledge, skills…) that are embedded in a specific local environment. The study of this phenomenon justifies the convergence of regional economics and the economics of innovation. The goal of this statement is to present the literature which might be used in two classes on regional development in the knowledge economy and glocalization of production, that could be taught in a planning, business or public policy department.

The Importance of Clusters for Sustainable Innovation Processes: The Context of Small and Medium Sized Regions

The purpose of the current paper is to provide a critical state-of-the-art review of current research on clusters and its correlation to innovation dynamics in small and medium-sized regions. In particular, we focus on the systematization of the main concepts and theoretical insights that are tributary to the cluster overview in terms of its relevance for the sustainability of the innovation processes, knowledge production and diffusion, which take place inside small and medium-sized regions. The present working paper takes into account the initial studies on English industrial districts (in the nineteenth century), passing through the Italian industrial districts (in the 70s and 80s of the twentieth century), until the modern theories of business clusters and innovation systems. These frameworks constitute the basis of an approach to endogenous development, which gives a central role to the interaction between economic actors, the society and the institutions and to the identification, mobilization and combination of potential resources within a particular geographical area.Cluster; Innovation; Endogenous development; Territory.

Co-evolution of firms, industries and networks in space

The cluster literature suffers from a number of shortcomings: (1) by and large, cluster studies do not take into account that firms in a cluster are heterogeneous in terms of capabilities; (2) cluster studies tend to overemphasize the importance of place and geographical proximity and underestimate the role of networks which are, by definition, a-spatial entities; (3) most, if not all cluster studies have a static nature, and do not address questions like the origins and evolution of clusters. Our aim is to overcome these shortcomings and propose a theoretical framework on the evolution of clusters. Bringing together bodies of literature on clusters, industrial dynamics, the evolutionary theory of the firm and network theory, we describe how clusters co-evolve with: (1) the industry they adhere to; (2) the (dynamic) capabilities of the firms they contain; and (3) the industry-wide knowledge network they are part of. Based on this framework, we believe the analysis of cluster evolution provides a promising research agenda in evolutionary economic geography for the years to come.cluster evolution, network dynamics, industrial dynamics, co-evolution, evolutionary economic geography