This book represents a significant contribution to the debates surrounding globalization and local systems of innovation. The diverse perspectives on global and local processes combined with original insights on developing countries should be of value to scholars and students of economics, social science, political science and business administration. The book should also be of interest to policymakers in governmental and non-governmental bodies, particularly international development agencies.
Enterprise Clusters and Networks in Developing Countries analyses the functions and advantages of clusters and networks for small enterprises in developing countries. In the opening chapter the editors describe different types of clusters and networks and compare the diverse forms of external economies and co-operation effects derived from them. Taking a multidiscplinary approach, they point out it is trust that is the social basis for positive effects of clustering and networking, which are often sources of co-operation and technology diffusion for small enterprises in developing countries.
Fiorenza Belussi, Giorgio Gottardi, and Enzo Rullani This volume collects some papers presented at the Vicenza conference "The Future of Districts", held in June 1999, organised by the Department of Technology and Management of Industrial Systems of the Faculty of Engineering of Padua University, with the collaboration of several engineers, industrial economists, and experts in the issue of technology management. This was the starting point of a long-lasting and painful colIective discussion, the results of which are documented here, during many meetings of this "itinerant" group, including the workshop in Padua, organised by Professor Luciano Pilotti and held in May 2001, "Systems, governance & knowledge within firm networks" at the Department of Economics of the University of Padua, and the recent international research seminar, held in May 2002, in Rome at the Tagliacarne Institute, within the EU sponsored project "Industrial districts' re location processes: identifying policies of EU enlargement West-East ID". The reason we decided to organise this book was not only to underline the importance of the industrial district (ID) model as a tool of propulsive local growth in a country like Italy. On the contrary, the idea that moved us was the theoretical dissatisfaction with the way in which the phenomenon of local development and industrial clustering of specific industries was treated in the international approach of the various disciplines.
Industrialization supported by industrial hubs has been widely associated with structural transformation and catch-up. But while the direct economic benefits of industrial hubs are significant, their value lies first and foremost in their contribution as incubators of industrialization, production and technological capability, and innovation. The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Hubs and Economic Development adopts an interdisciplinary approach to examine the conceptual underpinnings, review empirical evidence of regions and economies, and extract pertinent lessons for policy reasearchers and practitioners on the key drivers of success and failure for industrial hubs. This Handbook illustrates the diverse and complex nature of industrial hubs and shows how they promote industrialization, economic structural transformation, and technological catch-up. It explores the implications of emerging issues and trends such as environmental protection and sustainability, technological advancement, shifts in the global economy, and urbanization.
This book examines the technology that is transferred in Mexico's Silicon Valley and the role that institutions of higher education and foreign electronics corporations play in the process. Riveria Vargas delineates that technology transfer is occurring, describes it nature, the channels of transfer, and its level by focusing on the informal mechanisms of technology transfer. Among the significant findings are that there has been very limited real technology transferred and that most of it is concentrated in operative-level capabilities. This study reveals that the lack of absorptive scientific and technological capacity, as a factor often cited to explain transfer failure, did not apply in the case of the region examined. In point of fact, the scientific and technological capacities exhibited in the region are superior to those in the Silicon Valley of the East in Malaysia during the 1970's and 1980's , where some studies reported more significant technology transfer. What then are the factors hindering technology transfer in some regions or promoting it in others? This book explores some the factors in play.
