Clustering in the global economy. The Combinatory Systems© Approach.

Abstract

If economic globalization, on the one hand, stimulates growth in the scale of production processes and of firms,networking and transnational processes, on the other hand it reinforces local economies and favours the genesis ofclusters of small production units in various forms: clusters, conglomerates, filière, districts, constellations and so on. There is no contradiction in these macro and micro globalization phenomena: the development of production iseither global or local, distributed or concentrated, worldwide or regional, and in general on either a macro or microdimensional scale (Schmitz, 2000). In this context, I aim to present a general theory – the theory of combinatory systems – which is able to describe,interpret and explain collective phenomena which derive from individual behaviours. By Combinatory System I mean an unorganized system made up of a plurality of similar agents; the macrobehaviour of the system, as a unit, derives from the combination of the analogous micro behaviours of its similarelements, according to a feedback relation between micro and macro behaviours. I aim also to apply the theory to interpret a particular kind of collective phenomenon: the joint-location of firms ina given area and the formation of clusters. The phenomenon we want to understand and explain is the joint-location of firms in an area that give rise toobservable concentrations or clusters in every form:1. Conglomerate clusters, typical of industrial and commercial areas;2. Specialized clusters, typical of single-business districts or mainly-business industrial areas;3. Vertically-integrated joint-location, typical of “filière”;4. Vertically- and horizontally-integrated joint-location, typical of networks;5. Hub (neck or spider-web) joint-location, arriving or departing.These types, and others we can derive from them, are basically generated from the action of two combinatorysystems:- systems of accumulation, which favor the exogenous genesis of clusters,- systems of diffusion, which instead favor the endogenous formation and growth of clusters.