ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the local area inter- and extra-firm networks of businesses in the non-metropolitan and rural districts in Spain that have been economically successful in the decade, and identifies the role of embeddedness and innovation in shaping that success. It explores evidence on the nature and extent of innovation within non-metropolitan local production systems in Spain. The chapter focuses on local firms' market strategies in the Spanish regions. It also explores the role and nature of institutional support in the processes of embeddedness. Evidence would suggest, moreover, that firms in Spain's non-metropolitan industrial districts do want institutional help, but of a very specific type. The chapter concludes with a range of questions and develops a critique on embeddedness in the Spanish context, and the role that policy can play in shaping and stimulating the processes of growth and change.
