Innovation, globalization, territory

The industrial mechanical cluster of Modena

Objectives of the project 

The research project “Innovation, globalization, territory: the industrial mechanical cluster of Modena” (InnGlob) was carried out to analyse the responses of mechanical companies in Modena when facing globalization.
The research questions concerned three interrelated issues:
> How did globalization influence the innovation processes of the companies in the cluster?
>To what extent did their roots change? What are the links with companies located in other territories (and which territories?)?
>What are the opportunities and limits for business expansion? And of the production system as a whole?

In order to answer to these questions, we analysed the results of Metalnet 2005 research and prepared a series of open questions. On these questions we carried out 30 interviews to a panel of companies, selected for the variety of their dimensions, of their production structures, of the characteristics of the outlet markets and the supply markets for components and semi-finished groups.

The working group
The InnGlob project was realized, in the period 2007-2008, by M. Russo (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) and J. Whitford (Columbia University, NY), with the collaboration of Monica Baracchi, Daniela Bigarelli and Stefania Corradi (R&I), and by Lorenzo Amoroso, Cristina Baldi, Fabio Buzi, Lucia Finarelli (graduate of the Faculty of Economics Marco Biagi, Unimore).
The InnGlob project is part of the "Global Components" project coordinated by G. Herrigel (Chicago Univ., US) and J.Zeitlin (Madison Univ., US) (funded by the Sloan Foundation)

Calendar of the activities
Track of the interviews: July 2007
Contacts with business associations: July-November 2007
Interviews with a panel of 30 companies (snow ball): July 2007 - January 2008
Transcript interviews: October 2007 - February 2008 | 50 hours of interviews | 643 pages of texts
Indexing of texts (Alas.ti) and analysis of interviews: January-May 2008
presentation of the results: Chicago (12 January 2008); Modena (June 5, 2008)