An Institutional Approach to Industrial Agglomerations : Theory of "Worlds of Production" and School of GREMI

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  • 産業集積への制度論的アプローチ : イノベーティブ・ミリュー論と「生産の世界」論
  • サンギョウ シュウセキ エノ セイドロンテキ アプローチ イノベーティブ ミリュー ロン ト セイサン ノ セカイ ロン

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to clarify common and different features between two theories on industrial agglomeration: the theory of "innovative milieu" developed by GREMI, and that of "worlds of production", elaborated by Storper and Salais. For our comparative analysis, we adopted the theoretical perspective of recent institutional economics, especially "Economics of Conventions". The theory of "innovative milieu" has been constructed around the concept of "milieu". As for the theory of "worlds of production", the "conventions" play essential roles. Both concepts have the effect that allows isolated individuals to make successful coordination. Then, economic actors who have access to "milieu" and/or "conventions" can overcome the incompleteness of "pure market logic" and reduce radical uncertainty. These merits are rooted in human cognition. In this sense, the two theories take account of the cognitive aspect in economic coordination by introducing the idea of "procedural rationality" rather than "limited rationality", derived both from Simon. Particularly, the analysis of Storper and Salais is influenced by a recent development of cognitive sciences in which the material things (les objets) may provide a cognitive support for coordination. On the contrary, we can also point out some differences between the two theories when analysing the dynamism of industrial agglomeration. It seems that the "worlds of production" theory can provide more useful tools than the discussion on the "innovative milieu". The first attempts seizing institutional (termed "conventional",) dynamism, which contributes strongly to the regional development by referencing to the ideas of "Economics of Convention". Furthermore, we can also consider their analysis as an approach to the logic of "collective learning". However its framework comes short in understanding the role of geographical agglomeration for such dynamism in regions. In the future, we hope that a connection can be made between the two theories both in theoretical and experimental studies in order to elucidate the logic of "collective learning" based on geographical proximity.

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