2007 Annual Symposium Papers
Working Paper 03.07
The new global linkages and innovation in production networks: a comparison of Polish and Turkish autocomponents clusters
Guldem Ozatagan
Abstract
In recent decades, many industries have gone through a process of significant restructuring where peripheral locations are becoming increasingly important as nodes in this process of creating global production networks. They are transforming themselves and building new linkages to the newly emerging global production networks. This paper aims to investigate these new linkages peripheral locations are building to integrate themselves to the emerging production networks and analyse the performance of the networks they have built. To pursue these objectives, we draw on primary data gathered through structured interviews with firms in Turkish and Polish auto-components clusters. The data is employed to compare the two clusters regarding the linkages they have built in global production networks, the nature of these linkages, and the innovativeness of the two clusters. Results from quantitative analysis show that the two clusters which have built different types of linkages in global networks of auto-production are equally innovative but the difference lies in their innovative behaviour. Based on the findings we discuss the possible explanations and argue that the two clusters are taking advantage of the different dynamics characterising their industrial histories, the reorganisation of the industry and the linkages they have built.