![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Digitization and its impact on regions and clusters remains overlooked in the literature, and constitute this present paper’s goal. How does an industrial district transit collectively to the adoption of new radical changes brought about by Industry 4.0? This study explores the role of collective actors and innovation platforms during the early stages of a pilot policy to stimulate a collective transition of an entire MID (Marshallian Industrial District) into Industry 4.0. We posit that institutional isomorphism and the existent social capital in MIDs is a double-sword phenomenon that can also positively constitute an enabler for fostering change on a collective-basis. Technology transitions, such as Industry 4.0, can be supported and led by collective actors that are central in facilitating the adoption of Industry 4.0 in MIDs, enticing innovative firms to engage in that transition, establishing, legitimizing, and embedding a new set of processes, practices and inter-firm arrangements for digitizing and then promoting imitation: the positive leverage of isomorphism. Thus, MID transition is facilitated through capitalizing on the MID logic of cooperation-competition and isomorphism, by developing and promoting a collective understanding of the new paradigm, building a supportive infrastructure, educating in the new technology and avoiding cognitive inertia.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. See Liao, Loures, Deschamps, Brezinski, and Venâncio (Citation2018) for an extensive revision of the concept.
2. We refer to Marshallian Industrial Districts, those socially-based socio-economic phenomena described in Becattini (Citation1990) and others. Sometimes, however, we use interchangeably the concept of cluster but always referring to MIDs.
3. Adopting the roles of coordinators, interconnectors and gatekeepers. See Belso, Diez-Vial, Lopez-Sanchez, and Mateu-Garcia (Citation2018).
4. The agglomeration index for Castellon is reported to be around 4.5 (450%) (See Hervás-Oliver et al., Citation2018). See more at Gabaldón-Estevan, Manjarrés-Henríquez, and Molina-Morales (Citation2018).
5. In 2018, 26 Castellon frit firms exported around 70% of their total production valued at 1.4 billion Euros, and employed around 3900 workers in 2018. Five of them account for 75% of those exports, the leading group. See www.anffecc.es (retrieved in June 2018; http://www.anffecc.com/es/cifras-del-sector).
7. Ceramic World Review 128/2018, pp. 12–126