ABSTRACT
In this chapter 1 we will present the so-called footwear cluster of Timişoara, which is, in fact, localised over an extended area of three Romanian western counties: Arad, Timis and Bihor. In Bihor and in Timis there has been a long tradition of shoe production since the postwar period; the county of Arad is more peripheral, and has a more recent industrialization in footwear production. The cluster took off after 1989, thanks to the entry of foreign investors, which acquired many state companies on the brink of economic collapse, or by using the modality of greenfield FDI. They came to Romania mainly to explore the cost opportunity offered by local labour costs, 2 which in comparison with Western costs are very low. Today, an important share of the region's gross product is realized through shoe production. The cluster of Timişoara is not particularly specialized; the main products cover footwear items for men, women, teenagers and children. It produces shoes, sandals, boots and high boots, and some semi-finished components: soles, faces (‘tomaie’), and accessories. The footwear sector does not represent the only sectoral specialization of the area because there is also a strong presence of clothing and textile firms. The cluster of Timişoara is now a satellite cluster/district (Markusen 1996) more than a Marshallian cluster, on the basis of the following indicators: it has a very low share of endogenous entrepreneurs; there is not much incremental innovation activity going on in local firms; the cluster communities’ practices are still in a latent phase of development.
