Industrial Districts’ Evolution and Technological Regimes: Italy and Taiwan

This paper investigates some plausible models of evolution of industrial districts (IDs) and clusters in light of the peculiar current features of technology and technological change. An insightful explanation of the variety of possible evolution of industrial clusters is provided focusing on the concept of ‘technological regimes’. Within this interpretative framework, the authors carried out original field studies and survey questionnaires in Italy and Taiwan to gather microeconomic evidence on the restructuring efforts and sources of competitiveness of selected small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The shift in the technological paradigm, that applies to all sectors, requires a substantial industrial reorganisation. Firms traditionally operating within industrial districts need to reorganise their knowledge linkages from a cluster-based approach to a global and broader approach. A key explanation of the success of SMEs competing in globalized high-tech industries, supported by our survey evidence, is the co-evolution of domestic and international knowledge linkages. Inter-firm and inter-institution linkages need to be built to provide local SMEs with the necessary externalities to cope with the dual challenge of knowledge creation and internationalisation. In Taiwan, this took the form of global production networks.