Competitiveness by Design

An Institutionalist Perspective on the Resurgence of a "Mature" Industry in a High-Wage Economy

Bibliographic Data

ID4041402
AuthorsCarolyn J Hatch (Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto 100 St. George Street Toronto ON M5S 3G3 Canada, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume89
Issue3
Pages261-284
Publication date2013-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0095 • E-ISSN: 1944-8287
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ecge.12009
OpenAlexW1561004052
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited43

In the midst of the widespread, long-term economic downturn throughout theCanadian manufacturing landscape, the contract (or office) furniture sector has demonstrated resilience and vibrancy. The study reported here investigated the institutional foundations of innovation and competitive advantage in this dynamic, design-led, export-oriented manufacturing sector. It connects to ongoing work in economic geography and the social sciences to enhance economic geographers' understanding of the role of institutions in shaping the practices of firms and competitive outcomes and seeks to advance a more agency-centered institutionalist economic geography. The study focused on three dimensions of industrial practices: (1) the use of training and investments in technology, (2) the nature of employment relations, and (3) the use of design. The analysis reveals that the most globally competitive firms operating in aCanadian institutional context prosper by learning a set of production practices and the value of design-intensive products from the embodied knowledge of their founders, who have lived, studied and worked in high-wage, coordinated market economies of continentalEurope. The ability of these entrepreneurs to transfer industrial knowledge from continentalEurope toCanada has had direct benefits for learning and innovation processes that are critical to the synthetic knowledge base of this sector. The empirical analysis entails a sector wide survey questionnaire (N = 220) as well as 55 in-depth interviews with senior managers, production workers, and designers from a subset of leading firms

Agency (philosophy) · Business · Competitive advantage · Context (archaeology) · Economic geography · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Industrial organization · Market economy · Sociology · Wage · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Marketing · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis · Regional resilience and development

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access