Business Networks In Clusters And Industrial Districts

Description:
During the 1980s the Marshallian concept of industrial district (ID) became widely popular due to the resurgence of interest in the reasons that make the agglomeration of specialised industries a territorial phenomenon worth being analyzed. The analysis of clusters and IDs has often been limited, considering only the local dimension of the created business networks. The external links of these systems have been systematically under-evaluated. This book offers a deep insight into the evolution of these systems and the internal-external mechanism of knowledge circulation and learning. This means that the access to external knowledge (information or R&D cooperative research) or to productive networks (global supply chains) is studied in order to describe how external knowledge is absorbed and how local clusters or districts become global systems. It provides a unified approach; showing that existing capabilities expand when locally embedded knowledge is combined with accessible external knowledge. In this view, external knowledge linkages reduce the danger of cognitive 'lock-in' and 'over-embeddedness', which may become important obstacles to local learning and innovation when technological trajectories and global economic conditions change. It features a selection of international experts.

Review:
My conclusion is that the book as a whole represents a valuable contribution to current debates concerning the role of clusters and geographical proximity in the globalised economy. I find this book both relevant to scholars and policy makers Grete Rusten, University of Bergen, Norway

Table of Contents:
Part 1: The business model of industrial districts and clusters in the knowledge-based view and in the social network analysis perspective 1. The international fragmentation of the industrial districts value chain between relocation and global integration Fiorenza Belussi and Alessia Sammarra 2. Situated business networks facing globalisation: a critical assessment Fiorenza Belussi and Silvia Sedita 3. Boundary spanning strategies of industrial districts: the impact of absorptive capacity Tine Aage Part 2: Industrial districts and clusters in the global value chains. A taxonomical exercise on the path-dependent avenue of Marshallian/Satellite/Evolutionary/Science districts 4. Industrial districts and clusters in the global value chain: the cases of Saonara, Pistoia and Boskoop Fiorenza Belussi and Silvia Rita Sedita 6. The evolution of the Montebelluna sportswear district through knowledge creation, ICT adoption, and international commercial nets Fiorenza Belussi 7. A 'low road' to competitiveness in the global apparel industry: the case of the Vibrata Valley district Alessia Sammarra 8. From proximity advantages to organisational advantages through the global extension of an industrial district: the case of the footwear district of Verona Fiorenza Belussi 9. Facing globalisation through inward and outward investments and international research collaboration: evidence from the biomedical district of Mirandola Fiorenza Belussi and Alessia Sammarra 10. Moving immigrants into western industrial districts: the 'inverse' delocalisation of the leather tanning district of Arzignano Fiorenza Belussi and Silvia Rita Sedita 11. The clustering R&D through the institutional mechanisms in the Paris Region Najoua Boufaden, Sofiene Lourimi and Andre Torre 12. Transferring entrepreneurialship: the making of the cluster of Timisoara Fiorenza Belussi 13. How deeply embedded is the 'footwear agglomeration' in Timisoara? Simona Montagnana 14. The Evolution of External Linkages and Relational Density in the Tuscan Leather Industry Lorenzo Bacci and Mauro Lombardi and Sandrine Labory 15. Local development and innovation policies in China: the experience of Guangdong specialised towns Annalisa Caloffi 16. Industrial Clusters in the Brazilian Ceramic Tile Industry and the New Challenges of the Competition in the Global Value Chain Renato Garcia and Gabriela Scur 17. The localisation of multinationals in Italian clusters between Marshallian and urban externalities Nicoletta Tessieri

Author Biography:
Fiorenza Belussi is Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Organization at the University of Padua, Italy. Alessia Sammarra is Assistant Professor of Strategic Management and Organization at the Faculty of Economics, University of L'Aquila, Italy.