Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
high dependencies between suppliers and large yards in the close-knit cluster that is still
completely in Korean hands (functional lock-in). If, therefore, competition from China
strongly increases in a future scenario, a constraining lock-in may occur. This constrain-
ing lock-in might, however, be much more the product of national interests than interests
of a regional coalition of enterprises and local and regional policy-makers.
The textile region of Westmünsterland, Germany
Thinly populated Westmünsterland, consisting of the counties Steinfurt and Borken,
is located in North Rhine-Westphalia in the western part of Germany at the Dutch-
German border (see Figure 21.2). Within Germany it is one of the main textile clusters.
The region's textile industry started with linen-weaving in cottages and farmhouses and
was initially based on l ax and hemp (Ditt, 2000; Hassink, 2007b; Hauf , 1995). Factory
production started from the 1840s onwards, when spinning machinery was adopted.
Most i rms that were established were small and family-owned. At the beginning of the
1960s, in its heyday, the textile industry employed about 75 per cent of all employees in
the region's manufacturing industry. In the early development phase, local textile entre-
preneurs had a strong impact on local politics. The exact location of railroad tracks, self-
i nanced railroad construction and the establishment of weaving schools are examples of
the entrepreneurs' impact on shaping the local production environment (Hauf , 1995, p.
135). During its heyday the textile cluster in Westmünsterland had the characteristics of
an industrial district, that is intensive inter-i rm networks within the region, but because
of the internationalization of sales, procurement and recently also production, the inten-
sity of inter-i rm networks within the region has been rapidly decreasing.
Because of a strong increase in competition from emerging economies in East Asia
combined with automation and rationalization of the production process, textile
employment decreased by 25 per cent during the 1960s. In the subsequent 1970s and
early 1980s Westmünsterland's economy hence suf ered from a crisis. However, it now
has scores that are average or even above-average on socio-economic indicators such
as employment growth, unemployment and gross domestic product per capita. The
restructuring process has led to a relatively heterogeneous regional production structure.
Instead of dominating the regional production structure, the textile industry is now only
one of a few large industries. The remaining textile companies have been successful in
reorientating themselves towards technical textiles, the high value-added segment of the
textile market. Inter-i rm cooperation within the region has been decreasing to low levels,
as a result of the restructuring process and the focus of the remaining textile companies
on new, diverse product markets, which are located outside the region. Overall, the
regional economy has been relatively successfully restructured (Reckfort and Ridder,
1996), since new manufacturing and service employment could be created to compensate
for the job losses in the textile industry. Moreover, most of the remaining textile compa-
nies managed to achieve renewal by diversifying into the i eld of technical textiles, with
applications in, for instance, medical technology, the car supplier industry, construction
and so on, instead of adjustment through copying and cost reduction.
It is partly because of relatively weak functional, cognitive and political lock-ins that
this renewal could be achieved. They contrast with the relatively strong lock-ins observed
in the neighbouring heavy industrial complex of the Ruhr area. Weak functional lock-ins
can be seen through the early diversii cation of the few textile industry suppliers in the
