Investigaciones Regionales - Journal of Regional Research has published the 60^th Issue, the third volume corresponding to 2024.

Below you will find the summaries of the papers published in this volume, which can be accessed at https://investigacionesregionales.org/en/revista/issue-60/  

We invite authors to submit papers at https://investigacionesregionales.org/en/envio-de-articulos/submission-of-papers-and-others-contributions/

Special Issue 2024 Issue 60

Editorial

Jose-Luis Hervas-Oliver, Silvia Rita Sedita

Uncovering business and spatial dimensions of industrial districts, clusters and learning regions

The article analyzes the trajectory of industrial districts in recent decades, outlining the main lines of research and their advances, as well as the key work of Dr. Fiorenza Belussi.

Keywords: Industrial districts; clusters; innovation; regions

Articles

Jose-Luis Hervas-Oliver, Carles Boronat-Moll, María Eizaguirre, Juan Antonio Márquez García

Extending the marshallian industrial districts framework: reframing types of multinationals

Recently, scholars have begun to show a reorientation of the Marshallian Industrial District (MDI) framework towards addressing topics that were not central to the mainstream, such as multinationals and their different sub-lines of research. In this study, we reflect on multinationals and their challenge to the established MID boundaries. By reviewing literature, we elaborate on, integrate and discuss types and effects of multinationals in districts, highlighting a new type of actor that has recently become more prominent: multinational private equity funds in MIDs. We elaborate on different types of multinationals in MIDs, reviewing and integrating extant evidence about private equity funds as new established realities. The study proposes new sub-lines of inquiry to extend and strenghten the MID framework.

Keywords: Multinationals; industrial districts; innovation

Philip Cooke, Rafael Boix-Doménech

A global assemblage of tax haven clusters: profit shifting, tax dodging and money laundering

In this paper, we examine tax haven clusters considering them as diverse but recognizable examples of about fifty phenomena worldwide rarely studied from an economic geography perspective. Three canonical but diverse examples of tax haven clusters are used for the analysis: Wilmington in Delaware (United States), Ireland (European Union), and Gibraltar (former European Union, now post-Brexit British Overseas Territory). The objects of study are not treated as being almost perfect expressions of the classical, canonical cluster configuration. On the contrary, we focus on the ‘agentic’ impulses of ‘desire’ motivating human action and use ‘pattern recognition’ to identify the features explaining these clusters and the ‘agentic’ actors motivating them. It is concluded that the characteristics of this type of clusters – tax haven clusters – require more recognition of the interactive and often innovative communication networks through which cluster members interact globally, given they exist within a global system akin to an ‘assemblage’. Unlike other types of clusters, we confirm their extreme dependence on the legislation on which they are based as well as their fragility in the face of legislative changes imposed from the outside.

Keywords: Clusters; assemblages; tax havens; agency; desire

Marco Bettiol, Greta Buoso, Eleonora Di Maria

Sustainability Strategies in Clusters and The Role of Communication

Environmental sustainability impacts on industrial districts and their lifecycle evolutionary processes. Nevertheless, research in this direction is scant, suggesting on the one hand, the role of lead firms of global value chains and, on the other hand, potential contributions of suppliers. The paper explores how district firms have invested in sustainability by analyzing sustainable-oriented communication strategies (certification, web, exhibitions) of Italian leather and jewelry clusters. Results show that districts are evolving by including sustainability in their strategies. A variety of sustainability strategies emerge among district firms, with differences also between firms in B2B and B2C markets.

Keywords: Communication; sustainability; jewelry; leather; cluster; certifications

Luiz Fernando Câmara Viana, Valmir Emil Hoffmann, Hugo Pinto, Isabel Diez-Vial

Do you have feet in your shoes? Innovation and resilience in a footwear industrial district in Brazil

This study examines innovation as a shock reaction in the process of regional economic resilience, focusing on a footwear industrial district in southern Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that innovation, a mechanism of adaptability, emerged in the industrial district not only to support economic recovery, but also to mitigate the adverse effects. Firms implemented novel marketing and sales processes, and some also had to change their information and communication systems or organisational structure to support e-commerce. As such, this study highlights the influence of adaptability on economic resistance.

Keywords: Regional resilience; innovation; adaptability; shocks

Marco Bellandi, Maria Della Lucia, Erica Santini

Humanistic place leadership, cultural enhancement, and change in industrial districts

Drawing inspiration from the works of Fiorenza Belussi on multiple paths of development in local productive systems, the essay contributes to the ongoing debate on factors facilitating such transformations, focusing primarily on industrial districts (IDs) as open learning systems. With specific reference to the Italian context, this paper recalls the delicate balance between socio-cultural and economic elements within IDs transitioning towards new paths of development, crucial for facing the current technological and societal challenges. The essay proposes to look at the possible diffusion of humanistic management (HM) and cultural enhancement of economic strategies, as new triggering factors against lock-in conditions and tendencies toward degradation during phases of ID transformation. HM prioritizes the well-being of individuals and ethical decision-making, aligning with a broader societal purpose. Cultural enhancement, rooted in a common heritage, supports place identity, and suggests bases for multiple specializations. The convergence of HM and cultural enhancement within IDs may offer to renewed place-leaderships levers for strategies of transition pointing to sustainable paths that align with broader societal goals in an era of disrupting challenges.

Keywords: Industrial districts; humanistic management; cultural-based development; place leadership

Simone Carmine, Valentina De Marchi, Roberto Grandinetti

Industrial districts, multinational corporations, and their local/global paradoxes

Over the past fifteen years, several studies have used the organizational theory of paradoxes to understand some typical organizational tensions, including that between global and local dimensions typically faced by multinational corporations. These studies analyze paradoxical tensions at the organizational or even intra-organizational level, while the paradox lens has not yet been applied to study systems such as industrial districts. This paper attempts to do so by analyzing and comparing the local/global paradox in multinational corporations and industrial districts. For the latter, the analysis rests on some empirical studies conducted on Italian districts. Moreover, as the presence of multinationals in these districts has become stronger in the recent phase, an attempt has been made to understand if and how this phenomenon impacts the local/global tension at the district level.

Keywords: Organizational paradoxes; local/global paradox; multinational corporations; industrial districts; Italy

Michaela Trippl, Simon Baumgartinger-Seiringer, Jannik Kastrup

Challenge-oriented regional innovation systems: towards a research agenda

In this letter, we reflect on recent modifications of the regional innovation system (RIS) approach that have been prompted by persistent environmental, social, and economic problems. Scholars have begun to advocate a reorientation of the RIS framework towards addressing territorial sustainability challenges and have introduced the notion of challenge-oriented regional innovation systems (CORIS). While the CORIS approach holds promise given the challenges of our time, several unresolved issues remain. We elaborate on and discuss three themes that demand further research. Firstly, there is a need for in-depth studies of the geographies of problems. Systematic analyses of the origins and interrelations of territorial challenges are high in demand. Secondly, the geographies of challenge-oriented innovation-exnovation dynamics warrant more attention. We argue that future research should delve into questions around the development, testing and upscaling of innovative solutions, as well as the unlocking and destabilisation of unsustainable practices in various spatial contexts. Lastly, we contend that a better understanding of the geographies of RIS reconfiguration is necessary. This entails shedding light on various forms of system-level agency involved in reorienting or transforming historically-grown real-world RIS in different types of regions.

Keywords: Challenge-orientation; regional innovation systems; CORIS; challenge-oriented regional innovation systems; research agenda

Silvia Rita Sedita, Amir Maghssudipour

From fashion to sustainability: the key role of industrial districts

Sustainability issues are increasingly influencing firms’ decision making, leading to the creation of new business models for finding solutions to environmental and societal challenges. This work aims to explore what is the role played by industrial districts in firms’ orientation towards sustainability. It implements a Propensity Score Matching technique on a novel datatabase with information on 1300 Italian fashion firms. Their sustainability orientation is measured using the Quantitas Intelligent Business Analyzer (QIBA), an original Natural Language Processing-based data mining technique, which allows scraping firms’ websites and analyzing their content adopting a Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency weighting scheme. Findings suggest the existence of a sustainability-driven industrial district effect, i.e. a positive association between the sustainability orientation of fashion firms and their localization in industrial districts.

Keywords: Fashion; Environmental sustainability; Social sustainability; Natural Language Processing; Industrial districts; Made in Italy

Bjørn T. Asheim

Will the post-neoliberal era represent a renaissance of industrial districts as we knew them?

We have now entered a post-neoliberal era, characterised by deglobalisation and reindustrialisation to obtain resilience and security in value chains and increase manufacturing capacity in Europe and the US.

Europe has not to the same extent suffered from deindustrialisation as the US. Typical examples of the industrial structure in Europe are the ’hidden champions’ of Germany and the industrial districts of the Third Italy. The industrial districts have been exposed to globalisation, resulting in the brake up of the original complete regional value chains through outsourcing in some sectors. However, in general the industrial districts have been surprisingly resilient during the 40 years period of neo-liberalist globalisation illustrating the ‘many possible world view’ of Sabel and Zeitlin (1985). In this contribution we ask what will the new tendencies of deglobalisation, regionalisation and Industry 4.0 digital technology mean for the future of the industrial district model? Will it imply a strengthening of the original form of industrial districts so that this model of (re)industrialisation once again takes on a position as a role model for developed economies. The intention of this letter is to introduce a discussion about this fascinating topic.

Keywords: Industrial districts; post-neoliberal era; deglobalisation; regionalisation; industry 4.0

Please submit your abstract for the 2025 I-NUF Conference!

The 10th International Urban Freight Conference (I-NUF) is the premier biennial conference that addresses all aspects of city logistics and goods movement in the world’s metropolitan areas. 

Click here to visit the Conference Webpage

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Call for Applications - Editor-in-Chief, Regional Science Policy & Practice (RSPP)

The Regional Science Association International (RSAI) seeks candidates for the position of editor-in-chief of the official journal of the association, Regional Science Policy & Practice (RSPP), starting Jan. 1, 2026 for a three-year term.

RSPP is an international journal that publishes high quality papers in applied regional science that explore policy and practice issues in regional and local development. It welcomes papers from a range of academic disciplines and practitioners including planning, public policy, geography, economics and environmental science and related fields. Papers should address the interface between academic debates and policy development and application. RSPP provides an opportunity for academics and policy-makers to develop a dialogue to identify and explore many of the challenges facing local and regional economies.

Candidates should be RSAI members in good standing, with a wide knowledge of urban and regional phenomena as well as distinguished records of scholarly contributions internationally. Candidates should also possess strong intellectual vision, leadership and organizational abilities, and experience relevant to editing a journal in the field of regional science.

The editor’s primary responsibility is to continue to enhance the journal’s quality, reputation, and scholarship. The editor will be expected to strengthen the journal’s competitive position in support of RSAI’s worldwide mission.

The editor will recommend an international team of associate editors and a book review editor to help administer the peer review process, promote excellence in content and advance editorial initiatives.

The RSPP editor reports to the RSAI Council.

Detailed information on responsibilities and on the process for applying for the editor-in-chief position is available below.

Letters of interest must be received within October 14, 2024. Candidatures will be first screened by a Search Committee appointed by the RSAI Council and comprising Prof. Hans Westlund (RSAI President); Prof. Roberta Capello (RSAI LRPC); Prof. Tomaz Dentinho (current RSPP EiC); and Prof. Isabelle Nillson (former RSPP Editor). Next, the RSAI Council will choose the new EiC at the RSAI Council meeting in New Orleans, during the November 2024 NARSC Congress. The new EiC will be appointed as RSPP associate editor during 2025, as a support to the current EiC, and for a gradual transition of the journal towards the new board.

Specific duties of the Editor-in-Chief and journal editorial office include:

1. Maintaining and updating the aims and scope of the journal, editorial policies, and guidelines to authors.
2. Overseeing the manuscript peer review process through the publisher’s on-line submission portal in an unbiased, confidential, and timely manner.
3. Checking proofs and revisions to proofs.
4. Preparing and forwarding accepted manuscripts to the publisher’s production department.
5. Coordinating standards and practices across managing editors and managing the workload of each member of the editorial team.
6. Maintaining close and regular contact with the publisher on marketing and production matters.
7. Initiating and responding to correspondence with authors, managing editors, and reviewers.
8. Recruiting, selecting, and appointing RSPP board members that reflect the diversity of regional science and addressing any performance issues.
9. Soliciting special issues, selecting guest editors, and providing advice and assistance to guest editors.
10. Adhering to the page budget and financial structures set by RSAI. RSAI and the publisher are responsible for managing production, layout, printing, subscriptions, pricing and funding initiatives for society publications.
11. Appointing associate editors and a book review editor (to be approved by RSAI Council). The editorial team (editor and associate editors) will be comprised of RSAI members with high stature and respect in the community, and with the expertise to manage the breadth of regional science.
12. Serving as a non-voting ex officio member of RSAI Council and other regional science governing bodies.
13. Reporting to RSAI Council through regular reports at Council meetings.
14. Reporting to the journal editorial board through board meetings held at least once a year.

Application process:

Interested individuals should submit an application package that includes:

• A succinct letter of interest and qualifications, containing an indication of the editorial team;
• A vision statement for the next three to six years of publication of RSPP.
• A curriculum vitae;
• The names and contact information of three references.

All requested information should be submitted by e-mail as a single PDF file to the RSAI Secretariat, Elisabete Martins (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Lectureships in Real Estate and Planning

The Department of Real Estate and Planning, Henley Business School (University of Reading, United Kingdom) is seeking to appoint two new faculty members at Lecturer level.

The first position is for a lecturer in ‘Housing Markets and Policy’.  Areas of interest include: housing economics, housing finance and mortgage markets, the evolution of the ‘living’ capital markets, national and international policy developments and the role of land use planning in shaping housing market outcomes.  An interest in the impact of global megatrends such as climate change, technology and demographics on housing markets and policy developments is desirable but not essential. 

The second position is for a lecturer in ‘Real Estate’.  Areas of interest include; pricing (including valuation and investment appraisal) finance (including green finance and ESG driven investing), asset management (including health and wellbeing in buildings) and market analysis (including the analysis of the so-called ‘alternative’ real estate sectors and hotels).  An interest in the impact of technology (including Prop Tech) on the real estate sector is desirable but not essential.

For more information on the position and the person specification please visit: https://jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetail?JobId=13664