Missing Elements of Knowledge Diffusion between Trade Fairs and Industrial Clusters Beyond Pipelines: Evidence from the Furniture Industry in Foshan, China

Abstract

This study illustrates neglected elements of knowledge transfer from trade fairs to industrial clusters. Based on a case study of the knowledge interactions between a trade fair and a furniture industrial cluster in China, the article presents several non-pipeline-based knowledge creation and diffusion mechanisms that have been downplayed in existing literature. Major findings of this article include that, first, trade fairs do not exist in isolation from each other; rather, they are hierarchically related with each other mainly by unidirectional knowledge flows. Trade fairs in different hierarchical levels have distinct market or technology positioning, meeting variegated knowledge needs of inferior fair participating firms. Second, trade fairs are not simply places where exhibiting firms from afar meet and establish “global pipelines”; rather, due to the openness of the market they offer opportunities for many nonexhibiting (but visiting) firms to gain critical knowledge at the site and the vicinity (including back regions) of trade fairs. Third, if trade fairs are in geographical proximity to industrial clusters, they are connected not necessarily by established global pipelines, but rather by improvised unique knowledge spillovers in the local space that are neither typical local nor global buzz. Findings suggest that existing literature has paid much attention to the pipelines of trade fairs as temporary clusters while downplaying their attribute as an open market that can facilitate more spillovers of (quasi) public knowledge both at and beyond the fair venue.

本研究描述了在贸易交易会到产业集群的知识转移过程中被忽视的因素。基于对中国的一个贸易交易会与一个家具产业集群之间知识互动的案例研究, 本文展示了文献忽视的几种非渠道式知识创造和传播机制。本文包括以下几个主要发现。首先, 各交易会之间并非孤立存在；相反, 它们主要通过单向知识流动, 产生了层次上的相互关联。不同层次的交易会有不同的市场或技术定位, 从而满足了低层次参会企业的多样化知识需求。其次, 贸易交易会不仅仅是参展公司的聚会并建立“全球渠道”的地方；相反, 由于市场的开放性, 交易会为参观(而非参展)公司提供了在现场及附近(包括后台)获得关键知识的机会。第三, 如果贸易交易会在地理位置上临近产业集群, 各交易会的相互关联并非通过既定的全球渠道, 而是通过本地空间(而非时髦的本地化或全球化)的临时性和独特的知识外溢。研究结果表明, 现有文献主要将交易渠道作为临时集群, 忽视了它的开放市场属性, 而开放市场可以促进更多(准)公共知识在交易场地内外的外溢。

Este estudio ilustra sobre los elementos que se soslayan en la transferencia de conocimientos desde las ferias comerciales a las agrupaciones industriales. Basado en un estudio de caso de las interacciones de conocimiento entre una feria de comercio y una agrupación de mueblería industrial en China, el artículo presenta varios mecanismos sobre la creación y difusión de conocimiento, no basados en una línea del tubo, que han sido menospreciados en la literatura existente. Los principales hallazgos del artículo incluyen en primer lugar la noción de que las ferias comerciales no ocurren aisladas unas de otras, sino que más bien se hallan relacionadas jerárquicamente entre sí, en especial por flujos unidireccionales de conocimiento. Las ferias comerciales en diferentes niveles de jerarquía tienen posicionamientos distintos de mercado o de tecnología, para satisfacer necesidades variadas en conocimiento de las empresas participantes en ferias de menor categoría. En segundo lugar, las ferias comerciales no son simplemente los lugares donde se reúnen las firmas expositoras provenientes de lejanos lugares, y que establecen “ductos globales”; sino que, debido a la apertura del mercado, ofrecen oportunidades para que numerosas empresas que no son exhibidoras (sino solo visitantes) adquieran conocimiento crítico en el sitio y en la vecindad (incluso regiones traseras) de las ferias comerciales. En tercer término, si las ferias comerciales se hallan en la proximidad geográfica de agrupamientos industriales, no están necesariamente conectadas por medio de ductos globales establecidos, sino mejor por desbordamientos improvisados de conocimientos únicos en el espacio local, que no son ni el típico zumbido local, ni el global. Los hallazgos sugieren que la literatura existente ha prestado mucha atención a las líneas de conducción de las ferias comerciales como agrupamientos temporales, mientras que se les resta importancia a su atributo como mercado abierto que puede inducir más desbordamientos del conocimiento (cuasi)público, tanto en la sede ferial como fuera de ella.

Key Words:

• buzz
• industrial cluster
• knowledge diffusion
• non-pipeline
• trade fairs

关键词：:

• 时髦
• 产业集群
• 知识传播
• 非渠道
• 贸易交易会。

Palabras clave::

• agrupamiento industrial
• conocimiento
• difusión del conocimiento
• ferias comerciales sin ducto
• zumbido

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the editor of The Professional Geographer and the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful and constructive suggestions and comments. We also thank Professor Fulong Wu of University College London for his valuable instructions on the article writing. Thanks also to Professor Qifeng Yuan of South China University of Technology and Professor Hua Peng of Sun Yat-sen University for their assistance with our field work in South China.

Kangmin Wu served as the corresponding author for this article.

Notes

1 Even at international hub trade fairs held in China, the proportion of foreign exhibiting firms does not exceed 40 percent.

2 This does not deny the prevalence of technology innovation in production lines of the traditional industries and the necessity of technological innovation as one important aspect in maintaining firms’ competitiveness.

3 Data here were provided by the Economy and Technology Promotion Bureau of each town.

4 Source: Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) data for 2008–2009, 2019 Statistical Report on Chinese Trade Fair Industry.

5 The nonexhibitors interviewed include not only visitors to the Longjiang IDFF, but also exhibitors of other TFs. In the LLJ furniture industrial cluster, there are firms that also attend other TFs.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2022A1515110530), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42101182; 42130712), the National Natural Science Foundation for Excellent Young Scholars (Grant No. 42122007), the Technology Plan of Guangzhou (No.202201010319), the GDAS Special Project of Science and Technology Development (Grant No. 2021GDASYL-20210103004; 2020GDASYL-20200102002).

Notes on contributors

Xiangyu Wang

XIANGYU WANG is an Assistant Professor in the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou, 510410, China. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Guangzhou Institute of Geography at Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510070, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include regional economic geography, innovation and industrial evolution, intelligent technology, and green transformation of urban economies.

Kangmin Wu

KANGMIN WU is an Assistant Professor in the Research Department of Human Geography and Regional Development at Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510070, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include innovation and financial geography.

Nicholas A. Phelps

NICHOLAS A. PHELPS is a Professor and Chair of Urban Planning in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 3010, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include the planning and politics of suburbanization, the geography of urban economic agglomeration, and the economic geography of multinational enterprises.

Gengzhi Huang

GENGZHI HUANG is a Professor in the School of Geography and Planning at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include urbanization, migration and informal economies, precarious work, labor agency, and social upgrading.