ABSTRACT
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 analysed. 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. A selection of international experts
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|65 pages
The business model of industrial districts and clusters between the knowledge-based view and the global chain perspective
chapter 3|14 pages
Boundary-spanning strategies of industrial districts
part II|145 pages
Industrial districts in the global value chains
chapter 4|21 pages
From proximity advantages to organizational advantages through the global extension of an industrial district
chapter 6|22 pages
A ‘low road' to competitiveness in the global apparel industry
chapter 7|10 pages
Moving immigrants into Western industrial districts
chapter 10|26 pages
The internationalization of the ‘footwear agglomeration' of Timişoara
part III|93 pages
Industrial districts and clusters in the global value chains
chapter 11|31 pages
Local systems playing globally
chapter 12|20 pages
Industrial districts and globalization
chapter 14|19 pages
Local development and innovation policies in China
part 4|98 pages
High-tech industrial districts and clusters in the global value chains