Innovation In Industrial Districts Research Articles

Absorptive capacity and radical innovation in industrial districts

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to adopt the absorptive capacity (ACAP) framework to understand radical innovation in industrial districts (IDs), adopting a multi-level perspective. By performing a longitudinal case study on an ID that has successfully introduced a radical innovation – the plastic ski boot innovation developed within the Montebelluna Sportsystem district in Italy – the paper highlights how key elements of the ACAP framework (i.e. its components, antecedents, and contingent factors) allow understanding wherein IDs might indeed successfully introduce radical innovations, and what are the specificities as respect as considering a single organisation as unit of analysis. Important policy implications arise, regarding how to support IDs competitiveness and resilience thanks to radical innovation.

The dissemination mechanisms of Industry 4.0 knowledge in traditional industrial districts:evidence from Italy

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a contribution on the diffusion of Industry 4 (I4.0)-related knowledge in industrial districts (IDs). The main goal is to examine the dissemination of I4.0 knowledge, exploring the main mechanisms for its spreading and highlighting the main factors shaping such processes. Focus is on dissemination processes in IDs active in traditional industries, which could represent the “periphery” of I4.0 application context.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is qualitative. Notably, this paper presents a case study of the Pesaro ID specialized in furniture/woodworking machinery sector. A total of 18 in-depth one-to-one interviews have been conducted with relevant informants from a variety of organizations within the cluster: companies, institutions and universities.FindingsThe complexity of I4.0 requires a combination of traditional mechanisms with innovative ones within IDs characterized by the emergence of new players, activities and resources. These changes led to three main evolving patterns: the horizon of I4.0 upgrading shows blurred boundaries in terms of sectors and geographic location, the I4.0 diffusion appears fragmented in terms of initiatives and projects by both firms and institutions and the dissemination of I4.0 knowledge pushes ID firms and institutions to pursue deliberate initiatives leading to innovative forms of “collective” cooperation.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to both theory and practice. From the theoretical point of view, this paper contributes to the literature on innovation in IDs and clusters on two interrelated grounds. First, it provides further research on I4.0 and IDs and clusters. Second, it contributes to the stream of research on knowledge creation and diffusion in IDs and clusters, providing empirically based insights over emerging local learning processes in IDs. Moreover, relevant managerial and policy implications stem from the analysis.

Place-based innovation in industrial districts: the long-term evolution of the iMID effect in Spain (1991–2014)

ABSTRACTThe innovation-Marshallian industrial district (iMID) effect defines the existence of dynamic efficiency in the Marshallian industrial district (MID) in the form of a positive innovative differential compared to the average of the national economy. Cross-sectional analyses have proven the existence of the iMID effect. Nevertheless, these findings do not provide any evidence on the evolution in the iMID effect over a long period and, in particular, when phases of growth, crisis and economic recovery follow one another, as occurred in the world economy around 1990 and 2007. This paper aims at closing this gap in knowledge by measuring the evolution of the iMID effect for Spain for the period 1991–2014. The measurement is made using an exhaustive database of 143,229 patents and by estimating a knowledge production function for the local production systems (LPSs). The results show that MIDs registered the largest number of patents compared to the other LPSs during the time span considered, that the iMID effect is higher for the highest quantiles of innovative intensity, and that MIDs’ innovative intensity has been continuously above the national average, even after the 2007 economic crisis. MIDs are still fundamental for the generation of innovation in the Spanish economy.

How proximity matters in interactive learning and innovation: a study of the Venetian glass industry

Drawing on the literature on proximity within industrial agglomerations, the authors develop a model to explain how social, cognitive and personal proximity influences interactive learning and innovation in industrial districts. A qualitative study of the Murano glassmaking district shows that interactive learning in an industrial district occurs on both horizontal and vertical dimensions, along which proximity plays different roles. Horizontal learning takes place through social and cognitive proximity and personal distance. Vertical learning occurs through personal proximity and social and cognitive distance. This study contributes to the literature on the proximity within industrial districts by highlighting the role of personal proximity, which is largely unexplored. This paper also considers the coevolution between the proximity dimensions and provides empirical evidence of two mechanisms of coevolution: a compensation mechanism between social and cognitive proximity and a substitution mechanism between personal proximity, and cognitive and social proximities.

Innovative culture in district innovation systems of European ceramics SMEs

ABSTRACTWe need to understand the dynamics of current local production systems in the form of industrial districts and, particularly, how culture and innovation are interlinked. In this paper, we argue that the district innovation system approach, which covers the innovation systems and industrial district literatures, provides a set of ideas useful for understanding the role of culture in innovation in industrial districts. We study the role of innovation culture in two of the most important European ceramics industrial districts in Italy and Spain. Specifically, we analyse how, within a given district system, the innovation culture, networks and social structure, and their inter-relations, influence the interactions among those agents actively participating in the development, diffusion or adoption of innovation. We identify the cultural elements that are decisive in these innovation systems and whether these elements are substantially equal between the two countries or whether there are differences in their cultures, processes and innovation systems. Our main finding is that the cultural dynamics in district innovation systems differs among countries.

Innovation in industrial districts: evidence from Italy

PurposeThe recent transformations brought about by the globalisation of markets have increased the competitive pressure for firms operating in traditional sectors, and in particular for those in industrial districts. The authors' aim is to understand the extent to which firms responded to these new challenges. More particularly, they investigate the determinants of innovation at firm level focusing on the role of firm's outsourcing strategies.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on an original firm‐level dataset, the authors analyse the determinants of innovation in a typical Italian industrial district, i.e. the hosiery district of Castel Goffredo in the Third Italy. They apply econometric techniques, in particular OLS and Tobit models.FindingsThe authors' findings suggest that industrial districts are evolving towards a differentiated organisational structure in which innovation is driven by firms, which are focused on core competences and high valued added activities.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors' results should be interpreted with some caution, since the cross‐sectional design of their data does not allow them to fully control for potential reverse causation effects, which might be relevant for some of the explanatory variables. Their data do not allow them to include additional instrumental variables, thus they cannot control for endogeneity. Therefore, their interpretation is limited to comment the extent and regularity of the relation between dependent and explanatory variables.Practical implicationsThe evidence presented in this study corroborates some arguments highlighted in the current debate about the evolution of industrial districts. A network‐based organisation is the dominant organisational structure. The authors have some evidence on the importance of size as driver of innovation.Originality/valueThe authors find original evidence at firm level on the relation between organisational change, in the form of outsourcing, and innovation in the context of an industrial district. They also find empirical support to arguments debated in the recent policy debates on whether small firms can be regarded as engines of innovation in industrial districts.

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.

Industrial Districts, Innovation and I-district Effect: Territory or Industrial Specialization?

The I-district effect hypothesis establishes the existence of highly intense innovation in Marshallian industrial districts due to the presence of external localization economies. However, industrial districts are characterized by specific manufacturing specializations in such a way that this effect could be due to these dominant specializations. The objective of this research is to test whether the effect is explained by the conditions of the territory or by the industrial specialization and to provide additional evidence of the existence and causes of the highly intense innovation in industrial districts (I-district effect). The estimates for Spain of a fixed-effects model interacting territory and industry suggest that the high innovative performance of industrial districts is maintained across sectors, whereas the industrial specialization behaves differently depending on the type of the local production system in which it is placed. The I-district effect is related to the conditions of the territory more than to the industrial specialization. The territory is a key variable in explaining the processes of innovation and should be considered a basic dimension in the design of innovation and industrial policies.

Innovation in Industrial Districts: Evidence from Italy

The aim of this paper is to show that Italian manufacturing firms belonging to Marshallian industrial districts carry out a higher innovative effort than is usually acknowledged. The empirical analysis makes use of a panel of 1,218 district and non‐district firms belonging to traditional sectors. Data refers to the years 1992 and 1995. We have estimated an augmented Cobb–Douglas production function. The estimates make it possible to empirically identify three different determinants of firms’ productivity: (i) the intentional innovative activity; (ii) the “district effect”; and (iii) the joint district and innovation effect. The results show that firms’ membership in industrial districts and product innovations are key factors in explaining the productivity of firms working in traditional Italian sectors.

Innovation in industrial districts: An agent-based simulation model

Despite the wideness of the literature on industrial districts (IDs), the driving processes of ID innovation have not still received much attention: Questions about how new innovation processes emerge, how, when and where they evolve are minimally addressed in the literature. To address these questions new theoretical approaches and methodologies are needed. In the paper we approach this topic by adopting complexity science and by using the agent-based simulation methodology. In particular, an agent-based simulation is conducted to investigate how innovation processes in IDs have to be modified to assure their survival in a highly competitive environment.

The "geographical agglomeration-private R&D expenditure" effect: Empirical evidence on Italian data*

Recent theoretical contributions show that geographical proximity, by increasing the payoff from free-riding on knowledge accumulation, may reduce the relative profitability of individual R&D activity vis-à-vis imitation and other alternative forms of technological innovation which exploit more efficiently the presence of geographical spillovers. As a consequence, these models predict that aggregate R&D effort is likely to be lower for firms agglomerated in "industrial districts" than for isolated firms. In this paper we provide partial support to this theoretical hypothesis by showing that geographical agglomeration reduces private R&D expenditures and has a negative impact on the decision to invest in R&D. We also find that a marginal increase in agglomeration within the industrial district has the effect of increasing the quality of innovation but not of individual R&D expenditures. These findings seem to confirm that innovation in industrial districts is influenced more by agglomeration externalities than by higher individual R&D effort, emphasising once again the importance of technological spillovers as channels of knowledge accumulation and diffusion in these areas.

Embeddedness, Milieu, and Innovation among High-Technology Firms: A Richardson, Texas, Case Study

The author seeks to contribute to the debate on embeddedness, milieu, and innovation in industrial districts through a case study of high-technology firms in Richardson, an inner-ring suburban city of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metropolitan area. Richardson is important because it can be clearly defined as an industrial district, with over 600 high-technology firms and 70 000 employees. The results suggest that the district is robust and highly innovative with considerable capacity for self-sustaining growth. The firms are well integrated, locally and nationally. Despite extensive formal connections, firms' relationships are not very embedded locally. The link between embeddedness and innovation is subtle at best, and is confined to a small set of the most highly innovative firms. Similarly, evidence of a well-established industrial milieu was not forthcoming, although it may be emerging. The relationship between milieu and innovation was vague and was confined to the most innovative firms. The long-term viability of the district is closely tied to the economic health of the metropolitan economy, suggesting that development strategies focused on the district per se are likely to meet with limited success.