IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v47y2010i5p1117-1146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spatial Implications of New Dynamics in Production Organisation: The Case of the Automotive Industry in the Basque Country

Author

Listed:
  • Javier Bilbao-Ubillos

    (Department of Applied Economics I, University of the Basque Country, Avda Lehendakari Agirre, 83, Bilbao, Vizcaya, 48015, Spain, javi.bilbao@ehu.es)

Abstract

This paper sets out to determine whether proximity constraints are more significant in new forms of production organisation in the automotive industry. An analysis is made of the extent to which new organisational technologies condition the internationalisation strategies of firms, with particular reference to whether geographical proximity requirements may condition the development of the automotive industry in the institutional and productive context of an intermediate region (such as the Basque Country) at risk from potential relocation towards central and eastern European countries (CEECs). The results derived from field work indicate that proximity constraints are not significant in the organisational configuration of the Basque automotive industry except in highly specific cases, thanks to the availability of solutions such as temporary agglomerations, new communication technologies and logistical systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Javier Bilbao-Ubillos, 2010. "Spatial Implications of New Dynamics in Production Organisation: The Case of the Automotive Industry in the Basque Country," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(5), pages 1117-1146, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:47:y:2010:i:5:p:1117-1146
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098009353627
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009353627
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098009353627?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rolf Sternberg & Olaf Arndt, 2001. "The Firm or the Region: What Determines the Innovation Behavior of European Firms?," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(4), pages 364-382, October.
    2. Keith Head & Thierry Mayer & John Ries, 2000. "On the Pervasiveness of Home Market Effects," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0862, Econometric Society.
    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g8o4o0m0g is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g8o4o0m0g is not listed on IDEAS
    5. David Sadler, 1999. "Internationalization and Specialization in the European Automotive Components Sector: Implications for the Hollowing-out Thesis," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 109-119.
    6. John H. Dunning & Rajneesh Narula, 2004. "Multinationals and Industrial Competitiveness," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3343.
    7. Justin Barnes & Raphael Kaplinsky, 2000. "Globalization and the Death of the Local Firm? The Automobile Components Sector in South Africa," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 797-812.
    8. D. Garel Rhys, 2004. "The Motor Industry in an Enlarged EU," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 877-900, June.
    9. Richardson, G B, 1972. "The Organisation of Industry," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(327), pages 883-896, September.
    10. Johanson, Jan & Mattsson, Lars-Gunnar, 1987. "Interorganizational relations in industrial systems : a network approach compared with the transaction cost approach," Working Papers 1987:7, Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies.
    11. Jorge Carrillo, 2004. "Transnational Strategies and Regional Development: The Case of GM and Delphi in Mexico," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1-2), pages 127-153.
    12. Andre Torre & Alain Rallet, 2005. "Proximity and Localization," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 47-59.
    13. Steven Klepper, 2002. "The capabilities of new firms and the evolution of the US automobile industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(4), pages 645-666, August.
    14. Thomas H. Klier, 1999. "Agglomeration in the U.S. auto supplier industry," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 23(Q I), pages 18-34.
    15. John Cantwell & Lucia Piscitello, 2005. "Recent Location of Foreign-owned Research and Development Activities by Large Multinational Corporations in the European Regions: The Role of Spillovers and Externalities," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 1-16.
    16. Roderik Ponds & Frank Van Oort & Koen Frenken, 2007. "The geographical and institutional proximity of research collaboration," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(3), pages 423-443, August.
    17. Michael Storper, 1998. "Economías regionales como activos relacionales," EKONOMIAZ. Revista vasca de Economía, Gobierno Vasco / Eusko Jaurlaritza / Basque Government, vol. 41(02), pages 10-45.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tom Broekel & Ron Boschma, 2012. "Knowledge networks in the Dutch aviation industry: the proximity paradox," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 409-433, March.
    2. Ron Boschma & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Mathijs de Vaan, 2014. "The formation of economic networks: a proximity approach," Chapters, in: André Torre & Frédéric Wallet (ed.), Regional Development and Proximity Relations, chapter 7, pages 243-266, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Tom Broekel & Ron Boschma, 2011. "The cognitive and geographical composition of ego-networks of firms – and how they impact on their innovation performance," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1118, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2011.
    4. Broekel, Tom & Boschma, Ron, 2017. "The cognitive and geographical structure of knowledge links and how they influence firms’ innovation performance," MPRA Paper 76805, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Lorenzo Cassi & Anne Plunket, 2014. "Proximity, network formation and inventive performance: in search of the proximity paradox," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(2), pages 395-422, September.
    6. Laurent R. Bergé, 2017. "Network proximity in the geography of research collaboration," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(4), pages 785-815, November.
    7. Jackie Krafft, 2006. "Business history and the organization of industry," Post-Print hal-00211780, HAL.
    8. Ferretti, Marco & Guerini, Massimiliano & Panetti, Eva & Parmentola, Adele, 2022. "The partner next door? The effect of micro-geographical proximity on intra-cluster inter-organizational relationships," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    9. Tom Broekel & Wladimir Mueller, 2018. "Critical links in knowledge networks – What about proximities and gatekeeper organisations?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(10), pages 919-939, November.
    10. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Martin M�ller & Allison Stewart, 2016. "Does Temporary Geographical Proximity Predict Learning? Knowledge Dynamics in the Olympic Games," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 377-390, March.
    12. Davids, Mila & Frenken, Koen, 2015. "Proximity, knowledge base and the innovation process The case of Unilever’s Becel diet margarine," Papers in Innovation Studies 2015/7, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    13. Rune Dahl Fitjar & Franz Huber & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2016. "Not too close, not too far: testing the Goldilocks principle of ‘optimal’ distance in innovation networks," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 465-487, August.
    14. Olivier Bouba-Olga & Michel Grossetti & Marie Ferru, 2014. "How I met my partner: reconsidering proximities," Chapters, in: André Torre & Frédéric Wallet (ed.), Regional Development and Proximity Relations, chapter 6, pages 223-240, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Crescenzi, Riccardo & Nathan, Max & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2016. "Do inventors talk to strangers? On proximity and collaborative knowledge creation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 177-194.
    16. Messaoud Zouikri & Mounir Amdaoud, 2018. "Compétences externes et innovation: le cas des firmes de l'industrie manufacturière algérienne," EconomiX Working Papers 2018-37, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    17. Lorenzo Cassi & Andrea Morrison & Roberta Rabellotti, 2015. "Proximity and Scientific Collaboration: Evidence from the Global Wine Industry," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 106(2), pages 205-219, April.
    18. Maria Tsouri, 2022. "Knowledge networks and strong tie creation: the role of relative network position," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 95-114, January.
    19. Vincent FRIGANT & Martin ZUMPE, 2014. "The persistent heterogeneity of trade patterns: A comparison of four European Automotive Global Production Networks," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2014-24, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    20. Negin Salimi & Rudi Bekkers & Koen Frenken, 2015. "Governance mode choice in collaborative Ph.D. projects," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(5), pages 840-858, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:47:y:2010:i:5:p:1117-1146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.