Local cluster dynamics: trajectories of mature industrial districts between decline and multiple embeddedness

Abstract

In this study the international trajectories of mature district evolution are investigated as a special case of institutional change, and a theoretical model for their evolution is proposed. This model is based on the idea that international growth and re-positioning represent the fundamental alternative to district sterilization and decline, in a framework where global markets provide the major pressure for change or decline but could also provide new opportunities for renewal. Alternative paths emerge from the combination of trigger events due to globalization and district leaders' behaviour: disembeddedness, re-embeddedness and multiple embeddedness are proposed here as the three main outcomes of mature district evolution. The latter constitutes a new construct introduced in this study in order to explore the possibility that districts relate themselves to global space creating similar systems abroad and/or establishing ties with existing systems, each one representing both a local network and a node of a global network.