Abstract
This paper proposes a theoretical integration of social capital and territorial perspectives for the study of industrial districts. Industrial districts benefit from fine-grained information and tacit knowledge exchanges and from norms and values that promote cooperation. These characteristics benefit individual firms for the exploitation, rather than exploration, of technologies and opportunities. We suggest that proximity facilitates the creation of third-party relationships, such as those between firms and regional institutions. These institutions provide individual firms with indirect links to sources of knowledge from outside the district. In order to give support to our theoretical argu-ment we examine the Spanish ceramic tile industrial district and focus on the role played by the Institute of Ceramic Technology as an illustrative case.
Highlights
Two different interorganizational approaches have been recognized as relevant for the analysis of the value creation and the competitive advantage of the firm
How can firms redundantly connected with other participants in an industrial district have access to new and external information and opportunities at the same time? We suggest that regional intermediaries, in particular regional institutions, can prevent the disadvantages derived from the absence of nonredundant ties for the individual firms
The primary research objective of this paper has been to investigate how geographical proximity affects firms' social networks. By integrating both social capital and territorial theoretical perspectives we conclude that a territorial agglomeration-i.e., industrial district-can be considered a network of dense and strong ties
Summary
Two different interorganizational approaches have been recognized as relevant for the analysis of the value creation and the competitive advantage of the firm. The second is the territorial perspective, which has received renewed attention from diverse disciplines In this field, authors have emphasized the benefits from externalities or nontraded interdependencies to firms in territorially bounded agglomerations (Storper 1992). Authors have emphasized the benefits from externalities or nontraded interdependencies to firms in territorially bounded agglomerations (Storper 1992) By integrating both perspectives, the paper's primary research question investigates the impact of territorial agglomerations, and industrial districts in particular, on social capital. This paper states that industrial districts can be defined as networks of dense and strong ties According to this characterization, industrial districts are much better at exploiting existent opportunities and technologies than exploring new ones.
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