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Marshall in Iberia. Industrial Districts and Leading Firms in the Creation of Competitive Advantage in Fashion Products

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Abstract

Firms dealing with “Made in Spain” fashion products (e.g., textiles, apparel, and footwear) have increased their presence in the world market over the last two decades. This paper focuses on the origins of this process. After constructing a new database of export districts, it first investigates the sources of the international competitiveness of these districts. Second, it explores whether industrial districts boosted the internationalization of Spanish fashion firms. The paper concludes that most of today’s outstanding Spanish firms in fashion-related international markets emerged from 1980s’ districts, which could have benefited from classical Marshallian externalities, while also taking advantage of the organizational capabilities of leading firms.

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Copyright © The Author(s) 2013. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

We would like to thank the editor and three anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 13th Meeting of the European Business History Association and the 55th Meeting of the Business History Conference (Milan, 2009), the 15th World Economic History Congress (Utrecht, 2009), the workshop “Los distritos industriales y los clusters ante la crisis económica internacional” (Bellaterra, 2010), and the 35th Meeting on Regional Studies-AECR (Badajoz, 2010). We thank the participants in these meetings for their comments, particularly Franco Amatori and John F. Wilson as well as Andrea Colli, Rafael Boix, Manuel Expósito-Langa, Francesc Xavier Molina, Francisco Puig, Vicent Soler, and Josep Lluis Ybarra. We are also grateful to Guillermo Gil-Mugarza for research assistance and to Eva Angrill for helping us with maps. This research has benefited from the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the project HAR2009-07571 and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project HR2012-33298. The authors also acknowledge the support from the Network in Economics and Public Policies (XREPP), launched by the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Centre d’Estudis Antoni de Capmany d’Economia i Història Econòmica (Universitat de Barcelona). The usual disclaimer applies.

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