Abstract
The local–global phenomenon literature is fragmented between the fields of international business and economic geography (EG). In the case of the latter, the literature, produced within the global production networks (GPNs) and global value chain frameworks, does not address the central role of firms, especially multinationals which co-locate and connect territories along GPNs. This paper develops a cross-field conceptual integration in order to enrich the EG perspective, using qualitative research methodology to test the framework. The results have important implications for scholars and policymakers.
Acknowledgements
We are very thankful to the “Ministry of Economics” funding ECO2010:17318 and “Generalitat Valenciana” for its support in visiting the London School of Economics and Political Science (BEST 2011 grants).
Notes
In order to simplify, we follow Gordon and McCann (Citation2000) and use the notion of cluster in a wide sense that includes pure agglomeration clusters, complexes à la Porter (Citation1990) and social networks such as industrial districts.
The economic rationale of the asymmetric distribution of knowledge between spaces is provided by Storper's (Citation2009) distinction and separation of the Marshall–Arrow externalities from those of Romer, drawing on growth theory. See Storper (Citation2009) for more details.
Castellon firms (big five, excluding Colorobbia, Italian firm), activities off-shored to Sassuolo: sales and technical customer service. Principal FDI types: market seeker. Castellon firms (big five), activities off-shored to Brazilian clusters: sales and technical customer service; production (complex, fusion frits); administration, innovation (product development, with no R&D). Principal FDI types: market seeker; efficiency seeker.