STUDY OF A RELATIONAL-COGNITIVE NETWORK IN COSTA RICA: THE CASE OF THE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE FOR MEDICAL DEVICES IN EL COYOL, COSTA RICA

Oscar Ugalde-Hernandez
Additional contact information
Oscar Ugalde-Hernandez: National University of Costa Rica, International Relations School, Heredia, Costa Rica

Review of Socio - Economic Perspectives, 2019, vol. 4, issue 1, 71-89

Abstract: The global medical device industry has been experiencing and is expected to experience an annual continuous growth of 5,6% in the 8 year period 2017 until 2024 (Evaluate, p. 10 ). This represents an amount in sales of approximately US$595,000. Costa Rica is not an exception to this medical device producers expansion. As a result of the governments promotion of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) with interesting fiscal and corporate benefits for multinational (MT) firms since the early 1990´s, the country has become the ‘second largest exporter of medical devices in Latin America (Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas para el Desarrollo, 2019, para. 3) This papers aim is to develop a relational economic geographic and cognoscitive geographical approach towards the analysis of how ‘knowledge´ relational networks; formed by local universities and the medical device MT producers, can contribute to the creation of socio-spatial interactions aiming at concrete economic changes and outcomes. Such relational networks also experience a "multiplying cognitive process, that increases the size and quality of intellectual and social capital that is embedded in a particular place" (Rullani, p. 2). These would in turn be reflected in a harmonious and sustainable business relationship with the host country, and the local territory in which the SEZ is located. Informal institutional arrangements (actions and practices such as participation in job fairs and in conjunction with the local universities) are strong motivations for the medical MT firms in El Coyol, Costa Rica to maintain a harmonious and sustainable business relationship with the host territory.

Keywords: Special Economic Zones; Clusters; Relational networks; Costa Rica (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 P45 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://reviewsep.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/5_UGALDE-Arranged.pdf (application/pdf)
https://reviewsep.com/?page_id=536 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aly:journl:201939

DOI: 10.19275/RSEP064

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Socio - Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Veysel KAYA

More articles in Review of Socio - Economic Perspectives from Reviewsep
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Veysel KAYA ().