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Spinoff and Clustering: a return to the Marshallian district

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  • Lucia Cusmano
  • Andrea Morrison
  • Enrico Pandolfo

Abstract

The origin and growth of industrial clusters have attracted the attention of scholars and policy makers since the early era of industrialisation. The seminal work by Alfred Marshall has represented the foundation for a rich strand of literature, whose late expansion and refinement were inspired by the experiences of localised development in emerging regions. This is the case of Italian industrial districts, which have emerged as a territorial model of industrial agglomeration, decentralised production and flexible specialisation. Recently, the traditional explananda of the emergence of clusters have been reconsidered. The evidence about the growth of clusters in areas that did not have obvious natural advantages, nor the first comers’ benefits of early agglomeration economies, has inspired a different conceptualisation, which draws consistently from the evolutionary perspective on industrial dynamics. Klepper (2001, 2010) shows that more successful firms have higher spin-off rates and their spin-offs tend to outperform competitors. Organizational reproduction and heredity are thus identified as the primary forces underlying clustering. The present paper investigates the emergence and evolution of an Italian industrial district, the Sassuolo tile district, one of the largest and most successful ceramic districts in the world, and a paradigmatic example of Italian Marshallian district. Overall, our findings confirm that organizational reproduction and heredity represent primary mechanisms of clustering. However, our results also show that spin-offs do not perform better than non-spin-offs. It appears that, in dense industrial environments and social networks, competitive advantages can also be acquired or built through other channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia Cusmano & Andrea Morrison & Enrico Pandolfo, 2014. "Spinoff and Clustering: a return to the Marshallian district," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1416, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2014.
  • Handle: RePEc:egu:wpaper:1416
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    Cited by:

    1. Arne Isaksen & Franz Tödtling & Michaela Trippl, 2016. "Innovation policies for regional structural change: Combining actor-based and system-based strategies," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_05, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    2. Qinghua He & Xin Zheng & Xin Xiao & Lei Luo & Hui Lin & Shan He, 2023. "The Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of the Ceramics Industry in Jingdezhen in the Last 40 Years," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Andrea Morrison & Ron Boschma, 2019. "The spatial evolution of the Italian motorcycle industry (1893–1993): Klepper’s heritage theory revisited," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(3), pages 613-634.
    4. Paolo Di Martino & Emanuele Felice & Michelangelo Vasta, 2017. "The curious case of the coexistence of two “access-orders”: Explaining the Italian regional divide," Department of Economics University of Siena 758, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    5. Sándor Juhász, 2021. "Spinoffs and tie formation in cluster knowledge networks," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1385-1404, April.
    6. Hunady, Jan & Orviska, Marta & Pisar, Peter, 2018. "University Characteristics as Factor Affecting the Creation of University Spin-Offs," Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference (2018), Split, Croatia, in: Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference, Split, Croatia, 6-8 September 2018, pages 476-484, IRENET - Society for Advancing Innovation and Research in Economy, Zagreb.
    7. Hunady Jan & Orviska Marta & Pisar Peter, 2019. "What matters: The Formation of University Spin-offs in Europe," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 10(1), pages 138-152, April.
    8. Ron Boschma, 2015. "Do spinoff dynamics or agglomeration externalities drive industry clustering? A reappraisal of Steven Klepper’s work," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(4), pages 859-873.
    9. Roberto Grandinetti, 2022. "A Routine-Based Theory of Routine Replication," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-23, July.
    10. Hervas-Oliver, Jose-Luis & Lleo, María & Cervello, Roberto, 2017. "The dynamics of cluster entrepreneurship: Knowledge legacy from parents or agglomeration effects? The case of the Castellon ceramic tile district," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 73-92.
    11. Trippl , Michaela & Grillitsch , Markus & Isaksen , Arne & Sinozic , Tanja, 2015. "Understanding Cluster Evolution," Papers in Innovation Studies 2015/46, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    12. Giulio Carli & Andrea Morrison, 2018. "On the evolution of the Castel Goffredo hosiery cluster: a life cycle perspective," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 915-932, May.
    13. Buenstorf, Guido & Costa, Carla, 2018. "Drivers of spin-off performance in industry clusters: Embodied knowledge or embedded firms?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 663-673.
    14. Andrea Morrison, 2018. "Spinoffs, parents, and institutions: Evidence from the Italian motorcycle industry," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1840, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2018.
    15. Sue Konzelmann & Frank Wilkinson, 2016. "Co-operation in Production, the Organization of Industry & Productive Systems: A Critical Survey of the 'District' Form of Industrial Organisation & Development," Working Papers wp481, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    16. Andrea Furlan & Roberto Grandinetti, 2018. "Can routines be inherited? A microfoundational approach to spinoffs," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0217, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".

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