Drawing on evidence on the home furnishing sectors in Italy during the XX century, the aim is to understand the instituted processes that facilitated the translation of design know-how from being project-specific to becoming relevant to broader remits. The paper contributes to the debate on...

A widespread assumption in economic geography and the economics of innovation is that firms located in clusters benefit from territorial learning and knowledge spillovers. However, it remains unclear to what extent these benefits actually occur. This paper aims to address this issue and examines...

We examine how industrial clustering affects biotechnology firms’ innovativeness, contrasting similar firms not located in clusters or located in clusters that are or are not focused on the firm’s technological specialization. Using detailed firm level data, we find clustered firms are eight...

This paper aims to shed some light on the influence of geographical proximity on both intra- and inter-industry spillovers by elaborating on the geographical dimension of both localised spillovers and inter-firm knowledge flows. By means of a unique longitudinal micro-database with information...

It has been argued that “… trade adjustment in East Asia…will be rapid and sizable, lifting aggregate growth in these economies even as the domestic non-tradable sectors continue to suffer a decline (as in Mexico)” (World Bank, 1998, p.5). Much hope has been pinned on the electronics...

The focus of this paper is on the evolution of international production by Japanese electronics firms. In the first two parts, I trace the development of Japanese production networks in Asia through three different periods. Each of these periods reflects fundamentally different strategic...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the spread of different international production networks in East Asia has affected the trade links of the region with the U.S. and Japan. We concentrate on one particular aspect, i.e. changes in the product composition of U.S. and Japanese electronics...

The aim of this paper is to develop and implement an empirical model of firm behaviour. The data applied are patent applications taken out by 16 multinationals within telecommunications. The first dimension of the model deals with the strategic behaviour of firms. Second dimension deals with the...