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The Local Innovation System as a Source of 'Variety': Openness and Adaptability in New York City's Garment District

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  • Norma Rantisi

Abstract

Employing an evolutionary economics framework, this paper investigates the innovation process in the New York City Garment District's women's wear industry. It analyses the ways in which Garment District designers have been able to exploit innovative ideas from an emerging design cluster on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and the role that the District's institutional infrastructure plays in facilitating this process. The paper argues that the variety as well as the economic coherence provided by the District's design innovation system underlies its ability to adapt to shifting competitive pressures. A partir de la theorie economique evolutionniste, cet article cherche a etudier le processus d'innovation dans le vetement feminin a New York. On analyse les facons dont les modelistes ont pu exploiter des idees novatrices qui proviennent d'un groupe de modelistes naissant situe a Manhattan dans le Lower East Side, et le role que joue l'infrastructure institutionnelle du district pour faciliter ce processus. L'article affirme que la variete ainsi que la coherence economique que fournit le systeme d'innovation conception sous-tend sa capacite de s'adapter aux forces competitives changeantes. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht den Innovationsprozess in New Yorks Distrikt der Damenbekleidungsindustrie im Rahmen der evolutionaren Wirtschaftswissenschaft. Es werden Wege analysiert, die es Entwurfen fur den Bekleidungsindutriedistrikt gestatten, innovative Ideen einer im Aufsteigen begriffenen, in der Lower East Side von Manhattan ansassigen Entwerfergruppe zu ubernehmen, und damit die Rolle, die die institutionelle Infrastruktur des Distrikts bei der Durchfuhrung dieses Vorgangs spielt. Der Aufsatz vertritt den Standpunkt, dass der Anpassungsfahigkeit sowohl Vielfalt als auch das vom Distrikt beigesteuerte System der Entwurfsinnovation zu Grunde liegt.

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  • Norma Rantisi, 2002. "The Local Innovation System as a Source of 'Variety': Openness and Adaptability in New York City's Garment District," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 587-602.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:36:y:2002:i:6:p:587-602
    DOI: 10.1080/00343400220146740
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