UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE VALENCIA
ECONOMICS & SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTAMENT

INNOVATIVE FIRM, KNOWLEDGE AND INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT

DOCTORAL THESES
by
MANUEL LÓPEZ ESTORNELL

Co-directors:
DR. IGNACIO FERNÁNDEZ DE LUCIO
DR. JOSÉ Mª GARCÍA ÁLVAREZ-COQUE


Abstract 

      This thesis deals with knowledge as a source of innovation. We specifically focus on knowledge in Valencian innovative firms and take as a frame of territorial reference those Local Working Systems (SLL) of the Comunitat Valenciana considered industrial districts (ID). To do so, we have provided the new concept of locational-translational knowledge, which predominates in the district, and we have analyzed the latter as a knowledge system. The behaviour of the variables of knowledge and of economic performance in innovative firms in the ID and in the no-district areas (NOID) on the one hand, and of innovative firms within the ID of ceramics, shoes and textiles on the other, have allowed us to study the presence of district and inter-district effects, respectively. Their presence has been also evaluated for some territorial variables referring to the labour and human resources market in ID and NOID. Finally, we have critically reviewed the Italian policy of industrial districts so as to establish its foundation and innovative contents.
      
Aims

The main aims of the thesis can be summarized as follows:

a) The detection of the sort of knowledge predominant in firms and institutions of the industrial district, as well as the identification of its characteristics, functioning, advantages and disadvantages.

b) The drawing up of a census of innovative firms in the Comunitat Valenciana that would allow searching and obtaining individualized information for each of them. This has been complemented with a parallel process with the same aims but, this time, of information concerning ID and NOID as SLL. Both are based on information from government sources.

c) The verification of the existence of district and interdistrict effects among Valencian innovative firms and SLL, based on the information mentioned above.

d) The revision of the policy of industrial districts enforced by the national and regional Italian governments so as to investigate their rationale and governance, and, in particular, a prospection of the policy specifically enforced by the Veneto region, as a case selected to analyze the relation between the district policy and the innovation policy.


Methodological elements to emphasize

      Within the methodological frame, we could point out the following aspects for their novel character or for their limited development in scientific literature until today:
      
a) The use of locational-translational knowledge as the sort of knowledge that fusions/hybridizes tacit and codified knowledge.
b) The consideration of the industrial district as a knowledge system, the consequent relevance of systemic relations, their evolution, present and future perspectives.
c) The elaboration of two databases as empiric material to test other aspects of the research. This has allowed us to design and develop a new process of requesting, obtaining, revising, integrating and systematizing quantitative information, from government bodies, about innovative firms and the territory where they are located.
d) The evaluation of the presence of the district-effect by using knowledge and economic variables. The introduction of a new effect, that we have called inter-district and the investigation of the presence of both effects among innovative firms and in the Local Working Systems.
e) The research of the specific enforcement of district policy in five districts of the Veneto and, particularly, the innovative contents of their policy instruments.

Results achieved

Among the results we would emphasize:

a) The introduction of what we have called locational-translational knowledge has allowed us to solve the contradiction that resulted from the generally accepted association of the ID with tacit knowledge, despite the intense technological change occurred in the past decades. Moreover, the vision of the district as a system of knowledge has allowed us to treat it as a dynamic phenomenon, to identify some stages of its temporal evolution and diverse changes occurred. This has leaded us to point out the need for its articulation with what we have described as virtual district.
b) The elaboration of the census of innovative firms of the Comunitat Valenciana since it would make feasible to carry out new research on this type of firms.
c) The verification that there has been no disctrict effect among the innovative firms of the ID if we consider the variables related to their economic performance.
d) The identification of two distinct innovation models, depending on the innovative firm being located in an ID or in a NOID. Innovation in the former seems to be mainly based on close knowledge resources and less intense in R+D, whereas in NOID the offer of knowledge includes universities, incorporates R+D and to apply for patents more frequently.
e) The observation of the presence of some interdistrict effect, with ID of ceramics obtaining better results than those of shoes and ID of textiles occupying an intermediate position. This order coincides with their respective technological intensity.
f) The behaviour of the territorial variables of ID and NOID has overall revealed the presence of forces that have homogenised and have apparently attenuated some of the distinctive properties attributed to the ID. This homogenisation has materialized in the strong presence of building activities in both types of SLL, the similarity of the rules of labour hiring and jobs demanded and in the loss of competitiveness –and relative presence– of traditional manufactures in the ID.
g) The appreciation that the Italian policy enforced in the ID requires a new foundation based on the generation of new economies, external to firms, but internal to districts, adapted to present firm needs and not necessarily just linked to SMEs.
h) The verification that the policy enforced in the Veneto has only partially reached the above mentioned aim, more intensely in the ID of major innovation, but without an explicit convergence between the policies of industrial districts and of innovation.