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Networks within Industrial Districts: Organising Knowledge Creation and Transfer by Means of Moderate Hierarchies

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  • Cristina Boari
  • Andrea Lipparini

Abstract

This paper furnishes evidence of innovative modes of organisationof inter-firm relationships and knowledge management within industrialdistricts. With the aid of a district firm, we first highlight the marked tendency among the largest companies to eschew an exclusively endogenous innovative process. Next, we analyse how the leading firm can play an active role within a network by assigning outside its boundaries tasks that were once undertaken in-house. This happens gradually with the moderate hierarchisation of originally destructured network relationships. In its attempt to organise innovative modes of design and manufacturing, without losing control and strategic legitimisation, the leading firm elects a coordinating agent withdirect responsibility over a selected team of specialist suppliers. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999

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  • Cristina Boari & Andrea Lipparini, 1999. "Networks within Industrial Districts: Organising Knowledge Creation and Transfer by Means of Moderate Hierarchies," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 3(4), pages 339-360, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jmgtgv:v:3:y:1999:i:4:p:339-360
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1009989028605
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    1. Jon Hanssen-Bauer & Charles C. Snow, 1996. "Responding to Hypercompetition: The Structure and Processes of a Regional Learning Network Organization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(4), pages 413-427, August.
    2. Lazerson, Mark H & Lorenzoni, Gianni, 1999. "The Firms That Feed Industrial Districts: A Return to the Italian," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 8(2), pages 235-266, June.
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    1. Cristina Boari & F. Xavier Molina-Morales & Luis Martínez-Cháfer, 2017. "Direct and Interactive Effects of Brokerage Roles on Innovation in Clustered Firms," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 336-358, September.
    2. Francis Munier, 2021. "Knowledge-Based Network: the Key Is the Solution of Dilemmas," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(1), pages 279-292, March.
    3. Manuel EXPÓSITO-LANGA & José-Vicente TOMÁS-MIQUEL & Gabriel BRĂTUCU & Oana BĂRBULESCU, 2018. "Embeddedness in Cluster Knowledge Networks, the Moderating Role of Network Competence. The Case Study of the Romanian Wine Cluster of Muntenia-Oltenia," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 148-160, December.
    4. Chris Huxham & Paul Hibbert, 2008. "Manifested Attitudes: Intricacies of Inter‐Partner Learning in Collaboration," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 502-529, May.
    5. Muhammad Jahanzaib Yousaf & Qamar Ali, 2018. "Impact of Knowledge Management on Innovation: Evidence from a South Asian Country," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(03), pages 1-18, September.
    6. Enrico Santarelli, 2004. "Patents and the Technological Performance of District Firms Evidence for the Emilia-Romagna Region of Italy," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2004-29, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    7. Ron Boschma & Anne L. J. ter Wal, 2007. "Knowledge Networks and Innovative Performance in an Industrial District: The Case of a Footwear District in the South of Italy," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 177-199.
    8. Belussi, Fiorenza & Sammarra, Alessia & Sedita, Silvia Rita, 2010. "Learning at the boundaries in an "Open Regional Innovation System": A focus on firms' innovation strategies in the Emilia Romagna life science industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 710-721, July.
    9. Sara Saggese, 2016. "Governance of Industrial Districts: Bibliometric and Cluster Analyses," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(9), pages 1-36, August.
    10. Huasheng Zhu & Kelly Wanjing Chen & Juncheng Dai, 2016. "Beyond Apprenticeship: Knowledge Brokers and Sustainability of Apprentice-Based Clusters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-17, December.
    11. Fiorenza Belussi & Silvia R Sedita & Tine Aage & Daniele Porcellato, 2011. "Inward Flows of Information and Knowledge in Low-tech Industrial Districts: Contrasting the ‘Few Firms Gatekeeper’ and ‘Direct Peer’ Models," Chapters, in: Paul L. Robertson & David Jacobson (ed.), Knowledge Transfer and Technology Diffusion, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Jiang Wei & Minfei Zhou & Mark Greeven & Hongyan Qu, 2016. "Economic governance, dual networks and innovative learning in five Chinese industrial clusters," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 1037-1074, December.
    13. Francis Munier & Francis Kern, 2009. "Knowledge creation in networks: a comparison between firm-network and network of firms," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 79-94.
    14. Gordon Müller-Seitz, 2015. "Strategische Führung in Industrial Service Networks: Leitgedanken zu Chancen und Grenzen aus Sicht von KMU," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 67(69), pages 17-34, January.
    15. Camisón, César & Forés, Beatriz, 2011. "Knowledge creation and absorptive capacity: The effect of intra-district shared competences," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 66-86, March.
    16. Ilwon Seo, 2019. "Regions’ Technology Brokerage Patterns and Dynamics for Regional Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-15, May.
    17. Grando, Alberto & Belvedere, Valeria, 2006. "District's manufacturing performances: A comparison among large, small-to-medium-sized and district enterprises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 85-99, November.
    18. Luciana Lazzeretti & Francesco Capone, 2009. "Industrial district effects and innovation in the Tuscan shipbuilding industry," Institut Metròpoli Working Paper in economics 0903, Institut Metròpoli.
    19. Alessandro Malipiero & Federico Munari & Maurizio Sobrero, 2005. "Focal Firms as Technological Gatakeepers within Industrial Districts Knowledge Creation and Dissemination in the Italian Packaging Machinery Industry," DRUID Working Papers 05-05, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.

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