Mario Davide Parrilli

Linking learning with governance in networks and clusters: key issues for analysis and policy

In this paper we analyse the relationship between governance and learning in clusters and networks. In particular, we see these two key elements as interdependent, suggesting that, under particular circumstances, such interdependence may drive clusters and networks towards a dynamic development trajectory. A pure ‘governance perspective’ makes the development of any locality dependent on the system of powers which exists within the locality or across the global value chain. In parallel, a pure ‘competence-based approach’ focuses mainly on the capabilities of actors to learn and undertake activities. In contrast, we open the prospects for an interdependent relation that may change the actual competences of actors as well as the governance settings and dynamics in networks and clusters. When supported by public policies, the learning process may have the potential to modify the governance environment. Simultaneously, the learning process is intrinsically influenced by economic power, which may seriously affect the development prospects of clusters and networks. This is why an intertwined consideration of both aspects is necessary to promote specific approaches to learning and to design appropriate policies. In this paper we offer two preliminary case studies to clarify some of these dynamics: the first taken from the computers cluster in Costa Rica and the second from an Italian bio-pharmaceutical firm and its production network. The first case study refers to the software cluster that was created from scratch in Costa Rica thanks to an enlightened government policy in coordination with new local enterprises and an important foreign direct investor; while the second reflects on the ability of an individual company to create a network of relationships with large transnational companies in order to acquire new competences without falling into a subordinate position with respect to its larger partners.

Collective efficiency, policy inducement and social embeddedness: Drivers for the development of industrial districts

Where is the future of traditional industrial districts in global markets where competition is fiercer every day? This paper presents the case of the furniture district of Forlí, Italy, as a means to explain the development process, the constraints and the growth prospects that involve this industrial district and, perhaps, a wider variety of districts and SME-based clusters. We hypothesise that development is more likely to be generated when three main drivers, taken from the main bodies of literature on districts and clusters, are taken together: ‘collective efficiency’, ‘policy inducement’ and ‘social embeddedness’. The case study of Forlí helps to identify the trajectory of one among many Italian industrial districts and its solutions to deal with the new competition. Yet, our approach highlights some of the main difficulties that this district is facing nowadays and the related challenges for future development. The general lesson derived from this analysis is that traditional ways of regarding cluster development on the basis of collective efficiency need to be supplemented with an adequate weighing of the social embeddedness driver, as well as of the national and local policy environment. This approach delivers strategic analytical tools to interpret the reality of districts and to target effective development actions.

Local and Regional Development in Global Value Chains, Production Networks and Innovation Networks: A Comparative Review and the Challenges for Future Research

Globalization as a process has developed exponentially over the past 20 years, generating multiple and opposite effects for local and regional development (LoRD). This has created both new opportunities as well as raising new threats for local actors, both public and private. This special issue sets out to consider the prospects for LoRD in this context. Our aim in the introductory article is to consider how globalization may bring about LoRD. We do this through a comparative review of three critical analytical frameworks that have been used in recent years to examine the changing dynamics of globalization and their consequences for local production systems, namely global value chains, global production networks and global innovation networks. We provide an overview of these distinct approaches, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. Our argument is not that any one of these approaches is necessarily “better” than the others, but rather that to formulate a more complete and dynamic territorial perspective on regional development in the context of globalization, there needs to be an attempt at (eclectically) integrating the elements of these three distinct frameworks. The article then goes on to show how individual contributions in this special issue push forward this agenda, drawing on these distinct analytical frameworks to consider the transformative prospects for LoRD.

The Role of Interactive Learning to Close the “Innovation Gap” in SME-Based Local Economies: A Furniture Cluster in the Basque Country and its Key Policy Implications

This paper identifies an “innovation gap” in the (in)efficient relation between innovation structures and production systems in SME-based economies and, by elucidating an implicit aspect of key theoretical contributions from Lundvall and Cooke, among others, sets the basis for a policy focus that may help reducing those margins of inefficiency. In this work, we identify three interdependent drivers of innovation: the “critical mass” of firms in a specific geographical location; the formation of “organizations” devoted to the creation and diffusion of knowledge and innovations; the ignition of “learning processes” within the production system that help catalyse significant innovations within the local economy. We suggest that the importance of processes of codified knowledge flows needs to be complemented by interactive flows of tacit knowledge that help overcoming the “innovation gap” that often exists between firms and knowledge institutions. Since this gap represents the inefficiency of the innovation structures, we suggest that it should be targeted by policy-makers and business associations as a central issue for innovation promotion through actions that intensify interactions and learning processes through bottom-up initiatives. These elements are analysed in a furniture cluster in the Basque Country and are highlighted on the basis of successful micro-territorial experiences.

Nested Methodological Approaches for Cluster Policy Evaluation: An Application to the Basque Country

Aranguren M. J., de la Maza X., Parrilli M. D., Vendrell-Herrero F. and Wilson J. R. Nested methodological approaches for cluster policy evaluation: an application to the Basque Country, Regional Studies. This paper explores the evaluation of cluster policies designed to support cooperation and networking. It examines the case of the long-running Basque policy, where support is provided for ‘cluster associations’. It first examines empirically the effects of the cluster associations on firm productivity performance, alongside other variables including agglomeration and firm behavioural characteristics. The results provide some weak evidence for the existence of additionality associated with the policy. This empirical work is complemented with context-specific knowledge of the policy in question to show that the nesting of both empirical and contextual approaches is crucial for effectively evaluating such policies.

A Stage and Eclectic Approach to Industrial District Development: Two Policy Keys for Survival Clusters in Developing Countries

This article analyses the history of Italian industrial districts (IDs) to identify lessons to help small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) clusters in developing countries to move to higher stages of development. Transforming the 1990 seminal work of Brusco on distinct models of SME clustering into a stage approach, this article identifies a sequence of different maturity stages which the IDs passed through: initial craft production; industrialization through large firms; the fragmentation of production followed by the growth of smaller specialized units; and, finally, new routes to innovation and competitiveness. These phases help explain how development is a stage process which needs to be carefully considered and not rushed, through attempting to cross too many stages at once. Realistic steps are always necessary to create an effective base for growth. Furthermore, a theoretical framework is presented, which identifies three factorial levels that have intervened in the ID development process over the past 50 years. Economic, policy and social factors are identified and presented as drivers that work together to produce the structural changes that explain an effective development process. The final section emphasizes the relevance that this kind of analysis can have on the policy‐making schemes being applied in developing countries, with special reference to less developed types of clusters.

The Resilience of Clusters in the Context of Increasing Globalization: The Basque Wind Energy Value Chain

In this paper, we study how globalization impacts on the structure and governance patterns of value chains and on the resilience of local clusters. We study the value chains related to two Basque (Spain) companies in the wind energy industry, Iberdrola and Gamesa, and the local cluster to which they belong. We find that firms within the cluster have different types of relationships with lead companies depending on their competences and the complexity of their products. As a consequence, firms also present different potential for growth and/or resilience: some have the capacity to internationalize their operations and/or shift to the offshore wind market, others are vulnerable to competition from providers in the emerging countries. Against this context, we discuss how the cluster responds to these challenges and the role of policy.

Introduction: Learning and Interaction — Drivers for Innovation in Current Competitive Markets

The challenge for Europe after the global economic and financial crisis is substantially different from the scenarios envisaged by the 2000 Lisbon Strategy. Then, optimistic perspectives of Europe catching up with the United States and becoming the most competitive region during a ten-year period were opened up, and the means of achieving this vision were to spend at least 3% of GDP on RD Lundvall, 2007). It is about twenty years since eminent academics acknowledged the role of innovation as the main driver of competitiveness, opening up the global market to new firms and developing countries capable of producing at very low cost (Drucker, 1985; Freeman, 1987; Porter, 1987; Dosi et al., 1988; Pyke and Sengenberger; 1992; Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993; Asheim, 1994; Cooke, 2004). The solution points to leaving the low-road type of competition to enter markets for more sophisticated, specialized or niche products that can be produced by selected firms and/or systems/clusters of firms. For these reasons, these market segments are less price competitive and potentially highly remunerative.

Integrating the national industrial system: the new challenge for Chile

This paper analyses the policy-making approach taken in Chile in the past three decades as a move away from unsatisfactory import substitution industrialisation (ISI), and as an affirmative response to the rule of free trade and globalisation. After many years of successful economic growth, Chile seems to be at a turning point. Indeed, the countrys position in the new globalised market–like that of other small countries–appears weak compared to stronger competitors, such as China and other East Asian countries. This is rooted in the neoliberal policies that have been pursued for many years (although in a less orthodox way in the last decade) and that have had a significant impact on the economic structure of the country. The main effect of these policies has been a split between a small sector driven by modern, technologically advanced, large firms, and a larger sector of traditional, labour-intensive, micro and small enterprises. The divergence between the two sectors in terms of their economic characteristics and their relative performance prevents them from establishing any kind of linkages. Therefore, the capacity of the system to respond to international competition shrinks. The implicit practical adjustments in policy-making implemented by the main national development organisation(s) are not enough to surmount the present difficulties. A different kind of answer is needed, namely, industrial development strategies that are voluntarily and collectively organised, and that aim to reconnect the national production system, overcoming tendencies to fragmentation and making the country more competitive internationally.

New Focus of Economic Reactivation in Spain: Creative Industries in the Basque Country

Localized creativity, small high-tech entrepreneurship, related innovation platforms, social capital embedded in dynamically open territorial communities and context-specific though continuously upgrading policy platforms are all means to face new challenges and to promote increased absorptive capacity within local and national territories. The contributors illustrate that these capabilities are much needed in the current globalized economy as a path towards sustainability and for creating new opportunities for their inhabitants. They analyse the challenges and development prospects of local/regional production systems internally, across territories, and in terms of their potential and territorial connectivity which can help exploit opportunities for proactive policy actions. This is increasingly relevant in the current climate, in which the balanced allocation of resources and opportunities, particularly for SMEs, cannot be expected to be the automatic result of the working of the market.