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Industrial and knowledge relocation strategies under the challenges of globalization and digitalization: the move of small and medium enterprises among territorial systems

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  • Lucio Biggiero

Abstract

Owing to globalization and digitalization, small and medium firms adopt relocation strategies to transfer their activities (and implicitly also knowledge) among territorial systems, inducing transformations into both source and destination areas. Cognitive proximity and knowledge creation/transfer play a crucial role, especially critical when concerning tacit knowledge, which can be transferred only by moving people. In each industrial cluster or industrial district it is possible to identify a kernel of critical activities, which requests complex competencies and has high added value, and a kernel of tacit knowledge, which is based on repeated face-to-face interactions. The former resists globalization and the latter prevents digitalization, which impacts heavily on territorial systems lacking trust, cooperative attitude, and other socio-cognitive factors. Relocation strategies are divided into selective and replicative alternatives, depending on the ability to preserve large kernels. When replicative strategies are followed by many firms, the socio-cognitive integrity and the economic competitiveness of the territorial system are severely damaged. Thus, in order to prevent the ruinous consequences of massive replicative relocation, local and regional governments should steer territorial systems towards selective relocation strategies supporting innovation and improving human capital, paying attention and developing socio-cognitive factors too. In the final part of the paper, case studies of industrial and knowledge relocation at intra-European level are discussed, and a general model is proposed.

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  • Lucio Biggiero, 2006. "Industrial and knowledge relocation strategies under the challenges of globalization and digitalization: the move of small and medium enterprises among territorial systems," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 443-471, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:18:y:2006:i:6:p:443-471
    DOI: 10.1080/08985620600884701
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    1. Marta Gancarczyk, 2010. "Model schyłku i odrodzenia klastrów," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 1-21.
    2. Anna Lejpras, 2015. "Knowledge, location, and internationalization: empirical evidence for manufacturing SMEs," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(8), pages 734-754, November.
    3. Ryan W. Tang & Ying Zhu & Hongbo Cai & Jinrong Han, 2021. "De-internationalization: A Thematic Review and the Directions Forward," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 267-312, June.
    4. Marta Gancarczyk & Joanna Bohatkiewicz, 2018. "Research Streams in Cluster Upgrading. A Literature Review," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 4(4), pages 17-42.
    5. Gancarczyk, Marta & Gancarczyk, Jacek, 2018. "Proactive international strategies of cluster SMEs," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 59-70.
    6. Zhao, Xiaoli & Yin, Haitao, 2011. "Industrial relocation and energy consumption: Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2944-2956, May.
    7. Biggiero, Lucio & Angelini, Pier Paolo, 2015. "Hunting scale-free properties in R&D collaboration networks: Self-organization, power-law and policy issues in the European aerospace research area," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 21-43.
    8. José Antonio Belso-Martínez & F. Xavier Molina-Morales, 2011. "The drivers of the open district development: a social capital approach," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 49-70, June.
    9. Feliciano-Cestero, María M. & Ameen, Nisreen & Kotabe, Masaaki & Paul, Justin & Signoret, Mario, 2023. "Is digital transformation threatened? A systematic literature review of the factors influencing firms’ digital transformation and internationalization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    10. Mara Bergamaschi & Cristina Bettinelli & Elena Lissana & Pasquale Massimo Picone, 2021. "Past, ongoing, and future debate on the interplay between internationalization and digitalization," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(4), pages 983-1032, December.
    11. Sven M. Laudien & Robin Pesch, 2019. "Understanding the influence of digitalization on service firm business model design: a qualitative-empirical analysis," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 575-587, June.
    12. Barbara Jankowska, 2010. "Internacjonalizacja klastrów," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 5-6, pages 19-40.
    13. Molina-Morales, Francesc Xavier & Martínez-Cháfer, Luís & Valiente-Bordanova, David, 2017. "Disruptive Technological Innovations as New Opportunities for Mature Industrial Clusters. The Case of Digital Printing Innovation in the Spanish Ceramic Tile Cluster," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 39, pages 39-57.
    14. Nunzia Carbonara & Ilaria Giannoccaro, 2014. "Determinants of MNC location choice in industrial districts: an empirical analysis in Italy," Chapters, in: Charlie Karlsson & Börje Johansson & Roger R. Stough (ed.), Agglomeration, Clusters and Entrepreneurship, chapter 5, pages 85-102, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Huanmei Li & Graciela Zubielqui & Allan O’Connor, 2015. "Entrepreneurial networking capacity of cluster firms: a social network perspective on how shared resources enhance firm performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 523-541, October.
    16. Biggiero, Lucio, 2007. "Organizations as congitive systems :what do they process and deliver?," MPRA Paper 3089, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Pier Paolo Angelini, "undated". "The role of inter-organizational proximity on the evolution of the European Aerospace R&D collaboration network," CERIS Working Paper 201402, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.

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