The Leather Clothing Cluster in Istanbul

The processing of leather and production of leather goods are traditional industries in Turkey, and Istanbul has historically been a centre of production and trade in this respect.1 This chapter examines the leather clothing cluster in Istanbul, which has gone through a strategic transformation over the past two decades. Interestingly, the change in the strategic orientation of firms has been accompanied by changes in the location of the industry within Istanbul, with the production and sales functions being concentrated in different locales. Specifically, the tanneries and factories are located in Tuzla, and firms that target the upper end of the market have retail outlets in Zeytinburnu while those which target the lower end of the market utilize the marketing channels in Laleli (Figure 7.1). The analysis of this cluster will therefore provide us with new insights into the evolution of competitive advantage in clusters and enable us to comment on the dynamics associated with the location of different activities in the value chain. Additionally, an analysis of the informal Laleli market will provide us with the opportunity to highlight a relatively understudied topic in the literature on clusters; that is, the fact that transnational linkages are formed not only by multinational enterprises but also by small entrepreneurs (Yükseker, 2003), and that informal transnational activities might also cluster in space.