Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and Smakman (2005), published in a special issue of
Environment and Planning A
. This
chapter is written in line with this new empirical research strand (see also Birch et al.,
2010; Hodson, 2008; Tödtling and Trippl, 2004).
The i rst aim of this chapter is therefore to comparatively analyse the impact of
lock-ins on restructuring processes in two dif erently structured regions (textile and
shipbuilding industry), regions that are furthermore located in dif erently politically
structured countries with a dissimilar economic development level, namely Germany
and South Korea. The second aim is to work out factors explaining why it is that we
i nd relatively strong lock-ins in some old industrial areas and relatively weak ones
in other old industrial areas. The deliberate choice of starkly contrasting character-
istics of research objects is related to the expected economic-structural and political-
institutional
impact factors
contributing to the strength of regional lock-ins. Concerning
the economic-structural impact factors the
expectation
is that the shipbuilding industry
clearly has stronger tendencies towards regional lock-ins than the textile industry,
given its stronger spatial concentration and mono-structure, high entry and exit barri-
ers because of its capital-intensive characteristics and its oligopolistic market structure.
Concerning the political-institutional impact factors, it is expected that the German
associative model is expected to lead to a stronger involvement of local and regional
actors involved in lock-ins than in the Korean developmental state model. Creating
clear value added to existing individual case-studies (Cho and Hassink, 2009; Eich-
Born and Hassink, 2005; Hassink, 2007b; Hassink and Shin, 2005b), this chapter goes
two steps further by, for the i rst time, systematically comparing the four case studies
and by, also for the i rst time, working out and testing the explanatory value of impact
factors.
In the next theoretical section on regional lock-ins, these impact factors are presented.
After that section, the empirical case studies are put in an economic-structural and
political-institutional context in section 3. The case studies are described in section 4,
whereas section 5 presents a comparative analysis and draws the conclusions of this
chapter.
2. Regional lock-ins in old industrial areas: a theoretical framework
Path dependence and lock-in are important notions of evolutionary economics that have
been used by economic geographers to explain the negative sides of economic clusters,
particularly the decline in old industrial areas (Boschma and Lambooy, 1999b; Hassink
and Shin, 2005a; for an excellent overview of path dependence and regional lock-in
and the links to evolutionary economics, see Martin and Sunley, 2006). According to
Saxenian (1994, p. 161), 'spatial clustering alone does not create mutually benei cial
interdependencies. An industrial system may be geographically agglomerated and yet
have limited capacity for adaption. This is overwhelmingly a function of organizational
structure, not of technology or i rm size'. Geographically concentrated clusters can
become insular, inward-looking systems, as many old industrial areas, both resource-
based mono-structural areas, dominated by for instance steel, coal-mining and shipbuild-
ing industry, and areas specialized in consumer goods (textile for instance) (Schamp,
2000), have shown us (Hamm and Wienert, 1989; Hudson, 1994). 'The initial strengths
of the industrial districts of the past - their industrial atmosphere, highly developed and
specialized infrastructure, the close interi rm linkages, and strong political support by
