Abstract
Accounting for the rise of the medical device industry in the Emilia-Romagna town of Mirandola from a once depressed agricultural area in 1962 to a world-manufacturing center for dialysis equipment and disposable plastic medical devices, requires in large measure mapping the methods of the local entrepreneur who spearheaded its development. Reworking Agrawal and Cockburn's anchor-tenant hypothesis highlighting the role of large organizations in fostering agglomerations, this paper privileges the Schumpeterian entrepreneur as the dynamic force driving new industrial formations. This anchor-entrepreneur with no prior experience in manufacturing medical devices and without any public financing or large private backers founded six firms. Each of these would be sold off fairly quickly to a different large multinational corporation. Placing the anchor-entrepreneur at the center stage advances understanding of early industry evolution, spelling out how first-mover pioneers shape the environment to establish the first markets needed to attract new resources and capabilities. Underpinning our argument are 61 fine-grain interviews with key medical device industry informants in addition to extensive secondary sources and historical records. We draw on this material to induce a stylized model of anchor-entrepreneurship and industry catalysis that rests on three generative processes: bricolage, second-hand imprinting and beaconing.
Highlights
How does one resurrect an economically depressed town? One blessed with good farmland and abundant water, but without the right combination of competitive manufacturing inputs and resources
The generative processes and developments have been situated within a larger chronology to better grasp the underlying dynamics (Van de Ven and Poole, 1990)
Challenging past research that emphasizes the planned and programmed nature of industry emergence, our study reveals that many generative events are random steps taken by pioneering actors immersed in bricolage
Summary
How does one resurrect an economically depressed town? One blessed with good farmland and abundant water, but without the right combination of competitive manufacturing inputs and resources. How does one resurrect an economically depressed town? Counting just five small factories – a sugar refinery, a maker of schoolbus frames, an industrial-biscuit bakery, a manufacturer of curtains and a firm producing plows - back in the early 1960s Mirandola, a provincial Modena town marking the northeastern confines of Emilia Romagna southeast of the Po River, did not appear to have a bright economic future. Less than a decade later it had earned a spot as one of the world's leading manufacturing centers for extracorporeal-blood and oxygen-medical devices and for kidney-dialysis machines. Today approximately one-fifth of Italy's medical-device firms call it home, accounting for about thirty percent of the nation's industry revenues. Massimo Fini Romano Flandoli Giorgio Garuti Carlo Gasaparini Dasco BSc, Industrial Chemistry High school diploma Technical school diploma University degree, economics Technical school diploma Technical school diploma Technical school diploma University degree, languages
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
