DESIGNING POLICIES FOR LOCAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: A METHODOLOGY BASED ON EVIDENCE FROM BRAZIL

Using a previously developed methodology for identifying, classifying and characterizing local production systems (LPS) in Brazil, and evidence produced by a number of case studies, the paper suggests that policies aimed at LPS (or industrial clusters) should be tailored according to a typology of clusters. This typology must take into account the cluster importance for local or regional development, its share in the respective industry, and its characteristics in terms of production structure, trading schemes, institutional infrastructure, governance structures, and social contexts. The paper starts by reviewing, from the point of view of policy-making, the theories that support industrial cluster analyses, namely those that explain clusters as: outcomes of plain agglomeration economies and increasing returns; the result of spatial dynamic processes; knowledge systems emerging from the geography of innovation and agglomeration; governance structures, and as evolving complex systems. Next, the results from an application of the methodology to Brazilian data and information and from a number of case studies are summarized. Finally, the paper suggests policy guidelines with some measures of general application, aimed at problems observed in all LPS, and some specific measures differentiated according to a typology of local production systems that resulted from the application of the methodology.

Designing Policies for Local Production Systems: A Methodology Based on Evidence from Brazil

Using a previously developed methodology for identifying, classifying and characterizing local production systems (LPS) in Brazil, and evidence produced by a number of case studies, the paper suggests that policies aimed at LPS (or industrial clusters) should be tailored according to a typology of clusters. This typology must take into account the cluster importance for local or regional development, its share in the respective industry, and its characteristics in terms of production structure, trading schemes, institutional infrastructure, governance structures, and social contexts. The paper starts by reviewing, from the point of view of policy-making, the theories that support industrial cluster analyses, namely those that explain clusters as: outcomes of plain agglomeration economies and increasing returns; the result of spatial dynamic processes; knowledge systems emerging from the geography of innovation and agglomeration; governance structures, and as evolving complex systems. Next, the results from an application of the methodology to Brazilian data and information and from a number of case studies are summarized. Finally, the paper suggests policy guidelines with some measures of general application, aimed at problems observed in all LPS, and some specific measures differentiated according to a typology of local production systems that resulted from the application of the methodology.Manufacturing Industry, Cluster, Local Production System, Industrial Policy

X + Y = liquen

Los líquenes están constituidos por la simbiosis entre un hongo y un alga: esto les confiere morfología y fisiología distintas de las que cada uno tiene por separado. Generalmente se los pasa por alto o se los confunde con algas o musgos. Pero pueden resultar muy atractivos si se aprende a mirarlos de cerca

Local production and innovation systems in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

This paper applies a specific methodology to geographically locate and delimit local production and innovation systems in the state of São Paulo. A first task, and a bulk part of the paper, is the elaboration of a number of quantitative indicators for the geographic concentration of manufacturing industries and for the location of industries at regional and local levels in that state. The elaboration of indices and other indicators for measuring regional location and specialization of economic activities is an old practice and has been an important object of study in regional economics since the seminal contributions by the pioneers of Regional Science. However, the statistical work developed in this paper is based on two most important recent contributions by P. Krugman (in Geography and Trade, 1991) and D. B. Audretsch & M. Feldman (in R&D spillovers and the geography of innovation and production, The American Economic Review, 86 (3), 1996). These authors calculated locational Gini coefficients for branches of U. S. manufacturing industry (Krugman) and for the geographic concentration of innovative activities and the location of U. S. manufacturing industries (Audretsch & Feldman). This paper applies the same methodology to calculate locational Gini coefficients for manufacturing industries in the state of São Paulo, the most advanced state in Brazilian industrialization. The Gini coefficients were calculated from data in RAIS - Relação Anual de Informações Sociais, elaborated by the Brazilian Ministry of Labor. This database provides detailed information on employment and number of plants by branches of manufacturing industries at micro-region and municipality levels. On the basis of the locational Gini coefficients the paper assesses which manufacturing industries are mostly spatially concentrated. Once these industries are identified, the paper proceeds by adding other indicators such as locational quotients, share of the local industry in the total manufacturing employment in the state, number of jobs and number of plants in the local industry. Combined, the Gini coefficients and the other indicators allow to identify, locate, and geographically delimit local production and innovation systems. Additionally, they make it possible to assess to what extent the local system is integrated. These findings are essential for guiding field research and, afterwards, for designing policies oriented to local production and innovation systems.

University-industry linkages and the role of the geographical proximity

The main aim of this paper is to exam the local dimension of the university and industry linkages. It is widely recognized in the literature that academic research is an important source of new knowledge to the innovative efforts of the firms. Many authors, such as Audrescht and Feldman (1996), Acs and Varga (2005), Breschi and Lissoni (2009), have shown that academic research is positively correlated with firms’ innovation at the geographical level. There are two reasons that are pointed out for this correlation. First, there are many ways in which knowledge generated by academic research can spill over to the firms, such as research papers, patents and informal contacts. Second, geographical proximity can encourage cooperation between academic researchers and the R&D staff in the firms. In this way, this paper tries to measure empirically the geographical dimension of the university-industry linkages in Brazil, in the same way to the first effort presented in ERSA 2010 (Garcia et al, 2010). To do that, it was used data from the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), collected at the CNPq Directory of Research Groups of Brazilian universities. The data shows that in 2008 there were 22,797 research groups from 422 institutions. Among these research groups, 2,726 declared that they have interactions with more than 3,800 firms, which means 5,132 interactions between university and industry. Data were organized both in firm-level and in research group-level; allow the identification of the localization of the firm and of the research group. Among the 5,132 interactions between firms and research groups, it was possible to see that 43.6% of interactions occur inside the same city; 51.2% inside the same region; and 75.3% in the same state. These results show the importance of the local dimension of the interactions between academic research of the university and innovative efforts of the firms. In addition, it was done some empirical tests in order to identify the main factors that contribute to foster university-industry linkages.

Knowledge, Innovation and Agglomeration - regionalized multiple indicators and evidence from Brazil

This paper develops multiple indicators to map the geographical distribution of knowledge and scientific and technological capabilities as proxies of the geographical distribution of Science, Technology & Innovation activities, and applies such indicators to data and information from the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The overall view of the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities in the state is complemented by the analysis of the same activities in the perspective of a local production and innovation system: the case of information and communication technologies in the micro-region of Campinas. The results show a pattern for the regional distributions of S,T&I activities along the main highways of the state, around metropolitan areas such as São Paulo and Campinas, and in regions where educational, science and technology, and R&D institutions are strongly concentrated. Firms tend to agglomerate in these areas and regions, forming local production and innovation systems. The paper produces evidence on the adherence of the geographical distribution of those systems to the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities as shown by the indicators. This confirms the empirical findings of the literature about the relationship between geography and innovation.

Knowledge and innovation in local production systems of ceramic tiles and the new challenges of the international competition

Este trabalho tem como objetivo contribuir para a compreensão das novas dinâmicas de geração de conhecimento e inovação em sistemas locais de produção a partir dos desafios da concorrência internacional, por meio da realização de estudos em dois sistemas locais da indústria de cerâmica de revestimento no Brasil, um localizado em Santa Gertrudes/SP e outro em Criciúma/SC. O estudo mostrou que os principais movimentos que caracterizaram o cenário competitivo global no período recente foram a expansão da China no mercado internacional; a expansão da indústria espanhola, fortemente calcada na interação com seus fornecedores de colorifícios; e a perda de participação da indústria italiana, a despeito da forte presença da indústria de máquinas e equipamentos. Mesmo com esse contexto de acirramento da concorrência internacional, a indústria brasileira atravessou um período de expansão, com o crescimento concomitante do mercado doméstico e das exportações. Esse crescimento traduziu-se em um elevado dinamismo da indústria, que contou tanto com a expansão da oferta de revestimentos cerâmicos como com mudanças expressivas nos parâmetros técnico-produtivos das empresas, motivadas em grande parte por um conjunto de benefícios decorrentes da aglomeração das empresas.This paper aims to contribute for the understanding of the new dynamics of knowledge and innovation in local production systems from the strengthening of the international rivalry in the ceramic tile industry, by studying two local systems in the Brazilian ceramic tile industry, one located in Santa Gertrudes/SP and the other in Criciuma/SC. The research shows that the current international competitive scenario is being characterized by the China's expansion in the world market; the Spanish expansion embedded in the interaction among their glaze suppliers; and the Italian decreasing market share, despite the strong presence of machinery goods industry. In spite of this global rivalry scenario the Brazilian ceramic tile industry had a expansion period with an increase domestic and exports markets. This increasing can be seem in the huge growth of the domestic industry, not only in the expansion of the supply of ceramic tiles but also in important changes in the techno-productive parameters of the firms, motivated by some benefits that came from the clustering of firms