Industrial districts as organizational environments: Resources, networks and structures

Popp, Andrew; Toms, Steve; Wilson, John F.

doi:10.1177/1744935906071909

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…This pattern forecloses some choices and promotes others. Governance is particularly important to understanding change and adjustment as it has such a large role to play in freezing or unfreezing existing resource configurations (Popp et al, 2006). Thus, crucially these four factors not only drive the larger dynamic of the life cycle but also act as generators of potential sources of lock-in by creating the contexts within which actors frame and make choices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, this relationship is, as we are taught both by life-cycle models and by the evolutionary economics of Nelson and Winter, a path-dependent one in which capabilities emerge and are elaborated at the level of both the firm and the district. Indeed, given both the importance of external economies to the logic of agglomeration and, in train, the importance of understanding districts as systems, the capabilities of the firm must be understood as being set within and, to an extent, dependent on those of the district as a whole (Popp et al, 2006).…”

Section: Driversmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, it is against their ability to reorder the allocation of resources that networks are best judged and through which the transformation and adjustment of districts is best explained (Popp, 2006;Popp et al, 2006). More fully, then, lock-in can then be understood as an inability to reorder resources or an inability to recognize that such a reordering may be necessary.…”

Section: Accommodationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life Cycles, Contingency, and Agency: Growth, Development, and Change in English Industrial Districts and Clusters

Popp

Wilson

2007

Environ Plan A

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Introduction: the value of historical perspectives Industrial districts have attracted increasing interest from scholars, policy makers, and the business community in recent years. While these socioeconomic^spatial phenomena appear to hold out an alluring promise of sustainable and equitable growth, several strands of research have argued that clustering is not always an unalloyed boon. In a recent special issue of Environment and Planning A, guest editors Hassink and Shin sought an advance in our understanding of the evolution of regions, clusters, and districts, and, in particular, of decline in mature systems. To that end, they and their contributors make the```lock-in' concept'', which they describe as``one of the few promising modern concepts'' with the potential to explain such phenomena, the``theoretical core'' of their programme (2005, page 571). At the same time, however, they also note the current weakness and fuzziness of the concept, resulting from its inductive origins and a lack of genuine comparative work. Chapman, in the same issue, suggests that a further cause of this weakness may stem from the fact that``much of the clusters discourse ... appears to lack historical perspective'' (2005, page 597). This seems surprising, however, given the sustained attention paid by economic and business historians to these issues (Wilson and Popp, 2003). In this paper we will present some of the fruits of that historical interest as they relate to the concerns central to the special issue.This common focus among the disciplines provides a strong justification for this paper. However, we also have reservations about aspects of the work conducted by geographers and presented in the special issue. These reservations hopefully provide the opportunity for a fruitful dialogue between economic geography and economic history. We will first outline some of our reservations before indicating the contribution that we believe a historical perspective can make to the lock-in concept and other, related debates within economic geography. As a statement of principle, we are concerned first and foremost with historical as well as with abstract time, with process, and with agency, defined as the extent to which actors are able both to make and to enact choices.Firstly, in terms of our response to the special issue, we have reservations about the presentation of the promising concept of contingency. Contingency in some of these studies appears as a form of deus ex machina that is exogenised and dehumanised.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Driversmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Accommodationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life Cycles, Contingency, and Agency: Growth, Development, and Change in English Industrial Districts and Clusters

Popp

Wilson

2007

Environ Plan A

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“…Popps, Toms and Wilson (2006) emphasized how networks provided relational governance that constrained managerial opportunism, but also encouraged coordination, a point previously asserted by Toms and Filatotchev (2004). However, the benefits of networks extended beyond decreased transaction costs, and in later work Williamson (1985), for example, suggested that the relational and social interdependence which underpin networks provided efficiency benefits, and a 'communicative rationality' based upon learning processes upon which social relationships are founded (Boyce, 2003).…”

Section: Network Religion and Quakersmentioning

confidence: 96%

Religion and social network analysis: the discipline of early modern quakers

Fincham

Burton

2020

JMH

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Purpose The importance of networks has been established in the development of commerce and capitalism, with key concepts reflecting both the dynamic and permeable characteristics of networks. Such attributes are exemplified by religious networks, which have been typically dismissed in terms of economic contribution as being both risk-averse and bounded by ethical barriers imposed by theology. This paper aims to examine the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the long 18th century to evidence the multi-plexity and density of connections and suggest that adherence to the Quaker discipline acted as a trust-based attribute and substituted for repeated iteration. Design/methodology/approach The archival investigation centres upon an analysis of “The Catalogue of Quaker Writing” and a close re-reading of the seminal text “Quakers in Science and Industry”, an authoritative account of Quaker firms and families in industry and commerce. By identifying multiple possible social network connections in Raistrick’s work, this paper reviewed and analysed The Catalogue of Quaker Writing to examine the presence or absence of these connections in the Quaker network in the long 18th century. Findings This paper shows how the Quaker network was an unusually dense network that benefited co-religionists by enabling commerce through its unique topography. In a period characterized by the absence of formal institutional mechanisms to regulate behaviour, Quaker discipline acted as a quasi-regulatory mechanism to regulate membership of the network and to govern member moral behaviour. Originality/value The Quakers offer an opportunity to examine an early modern network to gain important insights into key aspects of network topography. By using social network analysis, this paper shows how Quakers performed a multiplicity of roles, which encouraged multiple modes of contact between members of the society in a dense network of contexts, which, in turn, provided high levels of connectedness between individuals. This unique range of roles, shared among a relatively small group of individuals, ensured that the degrees of separation between roles were very few; similarly, the plethora of connections resulted in a density, which not only allowed for multiple ways to engage with other individuals but also ensured no individual would become a bottle-neck or indeed a gateway that would prevent access. This unique topography was also highly unusual in that it was permeable to any aspirant member upon acceptance of the discipline – neither poverty nor lack of social status was barriers to membership. This unusual network offered atypical commercial advantages for its members.

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“…The dynamics of industrial regions are among the subjects that feature in the first volume. Popp et al. attempt to link firm‐based and cluster‐based theories using pre‐1914 British industrial districts as case studies, although they do concede the contingent and place‐specific nature of many outcomes, a point reinforced elsewhere by Martin and Sunley, who argue that the mechanisms whereby some regional clusters wither, whereas others regenerate, are still understood poorly. They underscore the vague conceptual underpinnings of terms like ‘path‐dependence’ and ‘lock‐in’.…”

Section: (V) 1850–1945 Mark Freeman and Julian Greaves University Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of periodical literature published in 2006

Pratt¹,

Schofield²,

French

et al. 2008

The Economic History Review

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Early Anglo-Saxon settlement sites have been revealed by several excavations. Dickens et al. report a substantial village and associated cemetery at Bloodmoor Hill, Suffolk. Finds included evidence for textile manufacture, but not specialist commodity production; occupation appears to have ceased in the late seventh or early eighth century. The settlement at Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, published by Murray and McDonald, yielded an enclosed farmstead and cemetery, both in use until c.800. Evidence for textile production and the presence of Ipswich ware suggests the site's participation in an active trading network. Wright, on Orton Waterville, Peterborough, reports a long-lived settlement generating relatively modest material remains. The site at Shepperton, Middlesex, described by Poulton, appears to have been regularly laid out in the later Anglo-Saxon period, replacing a flourishing earlier settlement. Parallel ditches point to the 'toft and croft' arrangement of medieval villages.Debate continues over early population movement. Casting doubt on the historicity of Irish migration to western Britain in the fourth or fifth centuries, Dark postulates the pre-existing presence there of spoken Irish. This would contrast with the evidence for Anglo-Saxon migration, particularly to 'Anglian' areas, considered more secure. Bartholemew offers grounds for identifying 'Angulus', Continental homeland of the Angli described by Bede, as modern Frisia. Possible connections with Procopius's account, usually treated with scepticism, might suggest Frisia as the starting-point for a substantial part of the Anglo-Saxon migration into Britain. Addressing the subject of river-names, generally considered a good indicator of Anglo-Saxon displacement in lowland areas, Yeates offers evidence from the Cotswolds area showing the loss of Brittonic river-names occurring over a far longer period.Though not necessarily incompatible with the orthodox view, this may suggest a greater survival of Brittonic nomenclature originally in the west.In funerary archaeology, Hamerow explores the 'special' deposition of human and animal remains within areas of occupation. The relatively high percentage of dogs and horses, together with cattle, strengthens the impression of ritualistic activity, possibly directed towards fertility, while an association with sunken-featured buildings would make sense if such structures had been used for storage. Reconstructing the ritual of human cremation, Williams places the deceased body at the centre of an elaborate visual spectacle. Rather than a mourner-centred approach to interpretation, the body itself may have had some agency in a complex interrelationship between the living and the dead. Chester-Kadwell, evaluating metal-detector finds in Norfolk, suggests that if used carefully these can supplement the existing corpus of known early cemeteries. Lee's study of textile evidence in funerary contexts shows its value not only in relation to gender but also as an indicator of social status. The model of a 'final phase' o...

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Industrial districts as organizational environments: Resources, networks and structures

Cited by 10 publications

References 63 publications

Life Cycles, Contingency, and Agency: Growth, Development, and Change in English Industrial Districts and Clusters

Life Cycles, Contingency, and Agency: Growth, Development, and Change in English Industrial Districts and Clusters

Religion and social network analysis: the discipline of early modern quakers

Review of periodical literature published in 2006

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