The Dynamics of Technical and Business Networks in Industrial Clusters: Embeddedness, status or proximity?

Pierre-Alexandre Balland, José Antonio Belso-Martínez and Andrea Morrison

No 1412, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Although informal knowledge networks have often been regarded as a key ingredient behind the success of industrial clusters, the forces that shape their structure and dynamics remain largely unknown. Drawing on recent network dynamic models, we analyze the evolution of business and technical informal networks within a toy cluster in Spain. Empirical results suggest that the dynamics of the two networks differ to a large extent. We find that status drives the formation of business networks, proximity is more crucial for technical networks, while embeddedness plays an equally important role in the dynamics of business and technical networks.

Keywords: Knowledge networks; industrial clusters; network dynamics; toy industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B52 D85 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2014-04, Revised 2014-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-com, nep-cse, nep-geo, nep-net and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:1412

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