Local Clusters in Global Value Chains Linking Actors and Territories Through Manufacturing and Innovation

The international fragmentation of economic activities – from research and design to production and marketing – described through the lens of the global value chain (GVC) approach impacts the structure and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) agglomerated in economic clusters. The consolidation of GVCs ruled by global lead firms and the recession of 2008-09 exacerbated the pressures on cluster actors that based their competitive advantage on local systems, spurring an increasing heterogeneity, both across and within clusters, that is still overlooked in the literature. Drawing on detailed studies of different industries and countries, Local Clusters in Global Value Chains shows the co-evolutionary trajectories of clusters and GVCs, and the role of firms and their strategies in organizing manufacturing and innovation activities in the context of ongoing technological shifts. The book explores the tension between place-based variables and global drivers of change, and the possibility for territories containing such clusters to prosper in the new global scenario. By adopting insights from the GVC framework and management studies, the book discusses how the internationalization strategies of firms create opportunities as well as constraints for adaptive upgrading in clusters.This book is of interest to both researchers and policy-makers who are interested in the dynamic sources of competitive advantage in the global economy.

Chapter 1. Industrial districts, clusters and global value chains: toward an integrated frameworkValentina De Marchi, Eleonora Di Maria, and Gary GereffiPart I – Co-evolution of clusters and global value chainsChapter 2. Italian industrial districts today: between decline and openness to global value chainsElisa Giuliani and Roberta Rabellotti Chapter 3. Evolutionary trajectories of industrial districts in global value chainsValentina De Marchi, Gary Gereffi and Roberto Grandinetti Chapter 4. Clusters, industrial districts and the impact of their growing intersection with global value chains Mario Davide Parrilli and Jirí BlažekPart II – The role of lead firms in global value chains and clustersChapter 5. MNEs and clusters: the creation of place-anchored value chains Fiorenza Belussi, Annalisa Caloffi and Silvia Rita SeditaChapter 6.Globalvalue chainsand the role of MNEs in local production systemsMariachiara Barzotto, Giancarlo Corò and Mario VolpeChapter 7. Knowledge, systemic contribution and brokerage in industrial clustersFrancesc Xavier Molina-Morales, Luis Martínez-Cháfer and José Antonio Belso-MartínezChapter 8. Local liabilities between immigrant and native entrepreneurship in clusters and global value chainsSimone GuerciniPart III – Value chain activities: rethinking the role of manufacturing and innovationChapter 9. Manufacturing where art thou? Value chain organization and cluster-firm strategies between local and globalMarco Bettiol, Maria Chiarvesio, Eleonora Di Maria and Stefano MicelliChapter 10. Networks of clusters within global value chains: the case of the European ceramic tile districts in Spain and ItalyJose Luis Hervas-Oliver and Ma

Valentina De Marchi is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Padova, Italy. Her research focuses on the managerial implications of environmental innovations and on the evolution of industrial districts within global value chainsEleonora Di Maria is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Padova, Italy. Her research focuses on internationalization, innovation and sustainability strategies of firms and local economic systems, as well as on evolutionary trends of knowledge- intensive business services.Gary Gereffi is Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of the Center on Globalization, Governance, & Competitiveness at Duke University. He published numerous books and articles on globalization and social and economic development; he is one of the originators of the global value chain framework.