Knowledge exchange processes in Industrial Districts and the emergence of networks

Luca Iandoli (), Cristina Ponsiglione (), Elio Marchione () and Giuseppe Zollo ()

Central European Journal of Operations Research, 2012, vol. 20, issue 2, 250 pages

Abstract: This paper aims at exploring conditions under which the need for knowledge exchange within a small firms’ cluster generates a structure of links between firms. We focus in particular on small firms’ clusters called Industrial Districts (IDs). Specifically, we analyze IDs with flexible specialization, in which knowledge exchange is driven by the search for complementary knowledge assets. Previous works of the authors proposed an agent-based model of IDs to explore the properties of networks emerging from the interaction of firms prompted by the search and exchange of complementary specialized knowledge. This model showed that limited relational capability, due to the small size, and an exchange mechanism solely based on the barter of complementary knowledge are structural conditions that limit individual firms’ growth in IDs with flexible specialization. This paper presents a new version of this model to analyze the role of embeddedness of relationships among IDs firms in shaping the emergent network structures. The aim of the paper is to answer to the following research questions: Can knowledge complementariness explain the emergence of a stable network of firms within a small firms’ cluster? What are the structural properties of these networks? Which role does the embeddedness of relationships among firms play in shaping the structure of emerging networks? Copyright Springer-Verlag 2012

Keywords: Knowledge exchange; Industrial districts; Agent-based modeling; Networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10100-011-0211-x (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:spr:cejnor:v:20:y:2012:i:2:p:231-250

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... search/journal/10100

DOI: 10.1007/s10100-011-0211-x

Access Statistics for this article

Central European Journal of Operations Research is currently edited by Ulrike Leopold-Wildburger

More articles in Central European Journal of Operations Research from Springer, Slovak Society for Operations Research, Hungarian Operational Research Society, Czech Society for Operations Research, Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR), Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research, Croatian Operational Research Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().