Local Systems’ Strategies Copying with Globalization: Collective Local Entrepreneurship

Covi, Giovanni (2014): Local Systems’ Strategies Copying with Globalization: Collective Local Entrepreneurship.

Abstract

The paper aims at investigating the possible trajectories of regional clusters (industrial districts or local systems) in order to depict feasible strategies to cope with globalization. First, same relevant stylized facts on the new structure of global market are presented in order to illustrate the new competitive framework the SME must face. Second, the concept of ‘complete productive process’ is introduced to characterize the special setting is necessary for the survival of the regional systems of SME. Said briefly, a local cluster needs to co-produce values, capabilities, institutions: its very identity. Since local systems are essentially ‘cognitive systems’, they need to go global not as single firm but as a system. To accomplish this difficult task they must resort to a collective and cooperative behaviour. The paper tries to fill this gap introducing the concept of ‘Collective Local Entrepreneurship’, a reference point, a device to whom anchor the strategic pragmatism necessary to regional clusters to cope with globalization. The renewal of the local ‘ecosystems’ within the international networks (at all different levels) appears to be a general objective. A strong public-private partnership emerges as a strategic commitment. In this perspective the paper tries to capture, as a conclusion, the potential dynamics of the four evolutionary trajectories, which the regional clusters are called upon to deal with.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Industrial clusters; innovation; knowledge; industrial policy; entrepreneurship.
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L2 - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior > L22 - Firm Organization and Market Structure; L - Industrial Organization > L2 - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior > L26 - Entrepreneurship; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O2 - Development Planning and Policy > O25 - Industrial Policy; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

References

Amin A., “The Globalization of the Economy: An Erosion of Regional Networks?”, in Grabher G. (Ed), The Embedded Firm. On Socioeconomics of Industrial Networks, Routledge, London

Arrow K. (1994), “The Production and the Distribution of Knowledge”, in Silverberg G. and Soete L. (Eds), The Economics of Growth and Technical Change, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham

Barro R. and Sala-i-Martin X. (1995), Economic Growth, McGraw-Hill, New York

Becattini G. (1990), “The Marshallian Industrial District as a Socio-Economic Notion”, Pyke F., Becattini G., Sengenberger W. (Eds), Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Cooperation in Italy, ILO Publications, Geneva

Becattini G, Rullani E. (1993), “Sistema locale e mercato globale”, Economia e Politica Industriale, n.80, pp. 25-48

Belussi F. and Gottardi G. (Eds.)(2000), Evolutionary Patterns of Local Industrial Systems, Ashgate, Aldershot

Belussi F. and Sedita S. R. (2010), “Localized and Distance Learning in Industrial Districts”, in Belussi F. and Samarra A. (Eds), Business Networks in Clusters and Industrial Districts, Routledge, London and New York

Cook P. (2002), Knowledge Economies. Clusters, Learning and Cooperative Advantages, Routledge, London

Cook S. D. N. and Brown J. S. (1999), “Bridging Epistemologies: The Generative Dance between Organizational Knowledge and Organizational Knowing”, Organization Science, 1999, n. 10, pp.381-400

Dohse D. (2007), “Cluster-Based Technology Policy. The German Experience”, Industry and Innovation, Vol. 14, N.1, pp. 69-94

Keesing D.B. (1988), “The Four Successful Exceptions: Official Export Promotion and Support for Export Marketing in Korea, Hong-Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, China”, UNDP- WB Trade Expansion Program Occasional Paper n.2

Kogut B. and Zander U. (1996), “What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning”, Organization Science, Vol 7, n.5, pp. 502-518

Krugman P. (1997), Development, Geography and Economic Theory, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Lorenzen M. (2001), “Localized Learning and Policy: academic advice on Enhancing Regional Competitiveness Trough Learning”, European Planning Studies, Vol.9, n. 2, pp. 163- 185

Marcone, M. R., “Innovation as Strategic Resource in International Business Markets”, XXV Annual Conference of Synergies: Innovation for the enterprises’ competitiveness, Polytechnic University of Marche, 24th October 2013.

Maskell P. (2001), “Toward a Knowledge-based Theory of Geographical Cluster”, Industrial and Corporate Change, n.10, pp. 921-943

Mazzucato M. (2013), The Entrepreneurial State. Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths, Anthem Press, London

Nonaka, I. and H. Takeuchi (1995), The knowledge-creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation, Oxford University Press, New York

OECD (2012,November), Boosting Local Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Creation in Lombardy Region, Paris, http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/SBA Lombardy Report_final report.pdf

OECD (2013), "Gross domestic expenditure on R&D", Science and Technology: Key Tables from OECD, No. 1.

Pasinetti L. (1981), Structural Change and Economics Growth: a theoretical essay on the dynamics of the wealth of nations, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Pavitt K., “Sectoral patterns of technological change: toward a taxonomy and theory”, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Brighton, 1984

Pilotti L. (2000), “Dalle Reti di Marketing al Marketing delle Reti e “Oltre”, in La Grande Danza che Crea nel Marketing Connettivo, Pilotti L. (Ed), CEDAM, Padova

Polanyi M., Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1962

Porter M. E. (1991), “Toward a Dynamic Theory of Strategy”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol.12: 95-117

Porter M. E. (1985), Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, Free Press, New York

Pyke F., Becattini G. and Sengenberger W. (Eds) (1990), Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Co-operation in Italy, ILO, Geneva

Rullani E., “The Industrial District (ID) as a cognitive system”, in Belussi F., Gottardi G., Rullani E. (Eds), The Technological Evolution of Industrial Districts, Kluwer Academic Publishers, London, 2003

Sanders, N. R., “An Empirical Study of the Impact of E-business Technologies on Organizational Collaboration and Performance, Journal of Operations Management, January 2007, pp. 1333 - 1345

Spender J. C., “Making Knowledge the Basis of a Dynamic Theory of the Firm”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 17, Special Issue: Knowledge anf the Firm, Winter 1996

Stiglitz J. E. (1987), “Learning to Learn, Localized Learning and Technological Progress”, in Das Gupta P. and Stoneman P. (Eds), Economic Policy and Technological Performance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Wade R. (1988), “The Role of Government in Overcoming Market Failure: Taiwan, Republic of Korea and Japan”, in White G. (Ed), Developmental States in East Asia, St. Martin’s Press, New York