Patterns of Innovation in Industrial Districts: An Empirical Analysis

Research has proved how the industrial district model can deliver sustained economic growth and sustains firms' competitiveness. Studies have also shown how spatial proximity helps in the process of knowledge generation and diffusion. Indeed, the literature on industrial districts since the earliest studies has stressed how districts are “loci” where sustained innovation activity is undertaken. However, this innovative dimension of districts' activities has not yet been fully explored. Sufficient theoretical background and empirical evidence as to whether the peculiar socio-economic characteristics of the industrial district model influence firms' innovation performance and the way innovation activity is carried out is lacking. The aim of this paper is thus to explore the determinants of innovation activities in firms located inside and outside industrial districts in the Italian region of Lombardy, investigating whether the district provides a favourable environment for the development of innovations and identify possible competitive advantages.     

ICT in Industrial Districts: An Empirical Analysis on Adoption, Use and Impact

The aim of this study is to analyse the main determinants of the adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the relationship between ICT and the patterns of innovation in an Italian industrial district. The analysis is carried out on a database of 118 textile enterprises located in Biella, a well-known industrial district specialized in medium to high quality woollen yarns and textiles, that have been interviewed following a structured questionnaire. On the whole, the rate of adoption and use of ICT in Biella is rather low and this confirms the results of other studies on industrial districts that are specialized in traditional sectors. Nevertheless, our analysis also shows that considering ICT as a general technology may be misleading. Instead, it is useful to disentangle the different ICT; in particular, there are significant differences between IT involving production, administration and logistic processes and the communication technologies (CT). Moreover, on a smaller sample of 50 firms we have tested the hypothesis that adoption and use of ICT may positively influence innovation. In this case, we find that different types of innovations, for instance, product, process and organizational innovations, are influenced by very different variables.     

The firms that feed industrial districts: A return to the Italian source

Italian industrial districts comprise a great variety of firmsand are criss-crossed by various networks and business groups.Although the vast majority of industrial district firms arerelatively small, it is a mistake to assume that they are organizationallysymmetrical and that they mimic the supposedly dominant normsof the communities in which they are located. Larger firms frequentlyorganize production among groups of smaller firms, introducetechnological innovations and expand existing markets.     

Knowledge Networks and Innovative Performance in an Industrial District: The Case of a Footwear District in the South of Italy

The traditional district literature tends to assume that: (1) the competitiveness of firms depends on external sources of knowledge; (2) all firms in a district benefit from knowledge externalities; (3) relying on external knowledge relationships necessarily means these are confined to the district area. Our case study of the Barletta footwear district in the South of Italy suggests otherwise. Based on social network analysis, we demonstrate that the local knowledge network is quite weak and unevenly distributed among the local firms. A strong local network position of a firm tended to increase their innovative performance, and so did their connectivity to extra-local firms. So, it mattered being connected either locally or non-locally: being co-located was surely not enough. Having a high absorptive capacity seemed to raise only indirectly, through non-local relationships, the innovative performance of firms.     

Symposium: Italian Industrial Districts In The I99Os

This paper reviews the scholarship concerning the rise to economic prominence of the Italian industrial districts, and the causes of some of the difficulties in which some districts have found themselves since the mid-1980s. The paper develops the main lines of the economic advantages that districts enjoyed during a period of rapid growth, resulting from the operation of a market in common which blends competition and cooperation. The effects of globalisation are changing this somewhat ‘idyllic’ picture, as the structure of linkages between firms comes under pressure. Prospects for the Italian districts in these new circumstances are discussed.     

Exploitative and Explorative Learning as a Response to the TRIPS Agreement in Indian Pharmaceutical Firms

The intellectual property regime forms an important part of any government's economic and industrial policies. It is an important regulatory instrument not only affecting industry and market structure but also influencing firm-level learning strategies, especially in knowledge-based industries like pharmaceuticals. Given its crucial role, the strengthening of patent laws as a result of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement presents a significant institutional change for developing country industry. This paper analyses Indian pharmaceutical firms' strategic response to the strengthening of patent law. The research in this paper shows that Indian pharmaceutical firms responded to anticipated disruptive regulatory change by developing competencies incrementally as well as radically. Ambidextrous capability development involved explorative investment in R&D to develop innovative product R&D competencies and in parallel also involved exploitative use of existing process R&D capabilities. This ambidextrous capability development has enabled Indian pharmaceutical firms to survive and compete with multinational corporation (MNC) pharmaceutical firms, showing other catch-up firms a different path of capability development.     

Receptive Capacity of Established Industries as a Limiting Factor in the Economy's Rate of Innovation¹

Although scholars and policy makers have widely acknowledged the importance of so-called high-technology industries as drivers of economic change, they have paid insufficient attention to the interaction between high-tech sectors and the remainder of the economy in developed countries. We contend that any constructive view of economic change must recognize the importance of the diffusion of innovative products and processes to the economy as a whole through the role that firms in established sectors play as customers and suppliers for high-tech firms. It is important to insure that the ""Receptive Capacity' that these firms bring to innovative situations is as high as possible. To demonstrate our point, we first use ""old' growth theory to develop a model of economic change and then show how this model ties in with ""new' ' growth theory by providing a convincing justification for investment in R&D and other innovative activities.     

Technology strategies,innovation without R&D

The key to the success of Italian industrial districts lies in their flexibility and innovation. Yet except for a few rare cases, investments in R&D have been very limited. The paper explores this apparent conundrum. Even though there are alternative methods to introduce innovations (for example, the supply of machinery), it still remains difficult, from a traditional point of view, to adequately explain the widespread creation of original knowledge that is no doubt present in these enclaves, and that is able to bring about effective product and process innovation in order to maintain competitiveness. By using evolutionary theories and numerous empirical examples, the paper outlines the mechanisms for generating knowledge, the learning patterns and the specialisation processes that appear to characterise the most dynamic Italian districts.     

The organizational context of public interest science

Technological development is shaped not only by the research and production activities of government and private firms, but also by the activities of “critical” scientists and public interest groups. Groups involved in nuclear waste and solar cell research are particularly revealing with respect to the nature and operation of public interest activities, owing to their different orientations to the technologies. This study compares the organizations activities, communication patterns, and ideologies of members of public interest groups with individuals in “traditional” research sectors. The results show that public interest organizations tend to be smaller, less bureaucratic, and less specialized than traditional research contexts, but their members spend a good deal of time on research-related activities. They are more tightly linked to the nuclear waste system, where they play an oppositional role, than to the solar cell system, but their opinions of government actions are quite low in both instances. Although traditional researchers in both systems do not rate their technical contributions highly, public interest researchers play an important role in the innovation process.     

Meeting the Challenges of Restructuring

Italy's industrial districts have achieved great success in the post-war period, based on their tightly-knit disaggregated production systems spanning small firms specializing in different phases of the value chain. Where competitive strategies were focused on quality and innovation, rather than on minimizing production costs, the districts have flourished. This study examines the chair manufacturing district of Friuli, looking at how its “spontaneous” organization of production has been brought under severe competitive pressure, ancl the moves undeway to respond to these new global forces.     

Transforming Industrial Districts: Large Firms and Small Business Networks in the Italian Eyewear Industry

This study is an evolutionary comparative analysis of how large, vertically integrated firms and networks of small firms perform, in response to the challenges posed by globalization. It focuses on the Italian eyewear industry which represents an ideal laboratory for studying the establishment and transformation of such diverse production models under ceteris paribus conditions (same industry, same challenges, same product, and same geographical location). Looking at longitudinal statistical data for the Belluno eyewear district and case studies of the four leading companies in the industry, this study demonstrates that, locally embedded networks of small firms no longer represent an organizational structure as robust and stable as in the past. Globalization challenges such networks and demands adjustments that transform the nature of the Belluno eyewear district, away from the traditional stereotype so widespread in the literature, towards a configuration characterized by the presence of leading firms and moderate hierarchy.     

Social Capital and Effective Innovation in Industrial Districts: Dual Effect of Absorptive Capacity

This paper deals with the factors that affect the heterogeneity in the access to knowledge and its exploitation through innovation in firms located in industrial districts. The aim of the study is to analyze the moderating role of the components of the absorptive capacity – identification and combination – in the process that leads firms in industrial districts with social capital to obtain effective innovations through the knowledge acquisition. We have developed the empirical analysis on a sample of 166 firms located in the industrial districts of the footwear industry in Spain. Findings suggest that the firms in industrial districts improve the acquisition of novel and valuable knowledge from external networks of information when they have identification capabilities to explore their potential. The results also indicate combinative capability strengthens the acquired new knowledge to develop and exploit successful innovations.     

Innovation in the European creative industries: a firm-level empirical approach

This paper explores the innovative performance of firms active in the creative industries (CIs). It identifies potential differentials in various innovation indicators between CI and non-CI young firms and examines drivers of the innovative performance of firms in the creative sectors. Our findings suggest that firms in the CIs outperform those in non-CIs both in terms of product innovation and R&D intensity, but not in terms of process and organisational innovation. Empirical analysis also suggests that the human capital of the founders as well as specific firm characteristics play a significant role in the innovative activity of firms in the CIs.     

Government Intervention or Entrepreneurial Profit? Explaining Innovation in the Korean Online Gaming Industry

This paper examines how and why the Korean online gaming industry gained dominance in the global market, despite US and Japanese competition in related gaming sectors. It examines how far this was stimulated by government intervention and how far it was due to private entrepreneurs. Using case studies of innovative firms, it argues that, whilst interventionist industrial policy was influential, the most important factors were changing market conditions, investment in higher education and telecommunications infrastructure. These created profit opportunities that Korean entrepreneurs were able to exploit through the foundation of new firms and access to university-based social networks.     

Knowledge-intensive sectors and the role of collective performance-related pay

ABSTRACT

The main contribution of this study is showing that the efficiency effects of collective performance-related pay (CPRP) are more pronounced in knowledge-intensive service sectors (KISs) than in other sectors. The hypothesis is that human resource practices such as CPRP are particularly useful for enhancing firm performance when innovation-supporting knowledge is distributed among multiple skill sets and employee creativity, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing are key success factors for the firm. Cross-sectional estimates obtained for a national sample of approximately 3,800 Italian firms confirm this prediction. These results are validated by adopting a treatment effect approach to solve the self-selection problem.     

Computer-based Automation and the Governance of Vertical Transactions

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of computer-basedproduction technologies on firms' choice of governance modefor vertical transactions. We argue that in the long run diffusionof the new technologies should lead to a wider use of arm'slength relationships with suppliers of increasingly standardizedintermediate goods. In the early stage of diffusion, however,vertical transactions should tend to be internalized under bierarcbicalcontrol. In any case, network configurations based on subcontractingare negatively affected. Evidence supporting these argumentsis provided through a ‘laboratory’ study of make-or-buydecisions made by 100 adopter firms in the Italian metalworkingindustry.     

工业设计创新性生产力特征的研究

基于对工业设计与生产力之间关系的认识,论述了从设计到工业设计的演变,从工业设计是生产力,工业设计是创新性生产力,工业设计是先进生产力等方面,分析了工业设计的生产力属性,以及工业设计的创新性质,提出了工业设计是创新性生产力的命题。意义在于强调要重视工业设计作为创新性生产力亦即先进生产力的发展要求,充分发挥工业设计创新对经济增长的推动作用。