The Role of Institutional and Territorial Factors in Innovation: the Case of the Spanish Footwear Components Industry

Abstract

The industrial fabric of the province of Alicante has long been made up of various types of agglomerations of companies, including local productive systems, industrial districts and clusters. These enterprise systems are currently facing challenges to their competitiveness brought about by global markets and transformations in technology and production. In this paper we analyze the transformation processes introduced by businesses in the footwear components industry and the importance of the Regional Innovation System in the recent economic context. We demonstrate how companies in the footwear sector have sought various alternatives, especially innovation strategies, internationalization, diversification towards different productive sectors, and specialization in different market segments. We also analyze the role of the Regional Innovation System of the Valencian Community (Spain) (e.g. the Chamber of Commerce, technological institutes, universities and innovation policies) in these transformation processes.

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