Agglomeration Advantages and Capability Building in Industrial Clusters: The Missing Link

Marjolein Caniëls and Henny Romijn

Journal of Development Studies, 2003, vol. 39, issue 3, 129-154

Abstract: Accumulation of technological capability is crucial for industrial growth and competitiveness of firms, particularly in the context of liberalisation and increasing international economic integration. The article sheds new light on the forces driving capability-building by complementing the micro-economic perspective on learning with a meso-economic perspective that takes account of interaction effects arising from firms' embeddedness in regional networks. The missing link at the interface between the two levels is explored by means of a taxonomy linking various agglomeration advantages to investments in technological effort. The framework results in new policy-relevant insights about the factors underpinning the acquisition of capabilities in comparison to conventional studies. A case study about farm equipment manufacturing in Pakistan's Punjab province is used as an empirical illustration.

Keywords: industrial clusters; technological capability; technological learning; knowledge spillovers; competitiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220380412331322851 (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:taf:jdevst:v:39:y:2003:i:3:p:129-154

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FJDS20

DOI: 10.1080/00220380412331322851

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Studies is currently edited by Howard White, Oliver Morrissey and Ken Shadlen

More articles in Journal of Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().