Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and learning networks (ter Wal 2010): the industry has not shown
high dynamism since the mid-1990s, going through a shrinking
process at the advantage of the IT sector, and displaying increas-
ingly the features of an industrial complex model.
(11) Probably one of the most illustrative examples of a local
competence-based network which has emerged into a global
competence-based network is that of the Formula One racing car
R&D cluster in the hinterland regions of London. Further evidence
about this 'steady transition' can be found in some successful
Italian industrial district cases, such as that of the Montebelluna
sport industry (Belussi 2010), or the Reggio Emilia mechanical
district (Ciapetti 2011). In this latter case, the district's transforma-
tion has recently occurred as a result of the rising specialization of
local firms in the mechatronic industry - that is, the integration of
mechanical, electronic and information-based components. Here
the process of technological upgrading and integration in MNE
networks has been described as being competence-enhancing
and based on incremental and architectural innovation (Ciapetti
2010).
(12) The evolution from a competence-based cluster to a trust-
based typology may be illustrated by some of the features of the
post-War development of the ceramics industry in Sassuolo (Italy)
and in Castellón (Spain). These two cases have shown evidence
of inter-district trust-based relationships and mutual interdepend-
ence of social networks (Molina-Morales and Martínez-Fernández
2008). Also, as seen above, in the IT industry located in the
Sophia-Antipolis cluster in the south of France, the emergence
over time of collective learning mechanisms and the significant
increase of local-local knowledge interactions (ter Wal 2010)
may give rise to a shift towards a trust-led social network kind of
spatial/industrial configuration.
(13) The transition from a trust-based system to something
approaching a pure agglomeration model, although not really
common, is characteristic of the changes experienced in the nine-
teenth century by the gun-making and small-arms industries in
Birmingham in the UK and in Connecticut in the USA (Best 1990).
(14) The evolutionary path from a trust-based system to an indus-
trial complex is characteristic of the changes exhibited - as a
