From globalisation to upgrading value in the productive chain in specialised agglomerations: Is local space still important? Evidence From Mexico

At the end of the century the world has seen important changes in production and distribution systems challenging competence of national economies. Increasing flows of capital and trade among countries, combined with important developments in telecommunications, have pushed towards new re-arrangements of the industrial production around the world. In this way, processes of globalisation are considered to shape productive systems and the localisation of different industrial sectors around the world (OECD, 1996). These processes have meant increasing competition for firms in national and international markets. In this way, both developed and LDCs are urged to increase competitiveness in order to increase employment, production and growth under a context of globalisation. The region has becoming highlighted as an important player in both, as an important source of competitiveness for localised firms and in the reallocation of economic activity. Agglomeration economies and innovation are considered the most important forces in agglomeration leading to increasing competitiveness and to improving living conditions for people living in such regions. Throughout the literature on industrial agglomerations, important theoretical prepositions have been drawn from the analysis of industrial regions localised mainly in European and North American cases. However, in the case of less developed countries (LDCs), fewer analysis and implications considering the new context of globalisation have been carried out in this kind of countries that are now playing an important role in the reallocation of industrial production and in the process of globalisation characterising the global economy . The face of productive structure of LDCs has changed dramatically since the last decade; increasing competitiveness not only has been the result of national or internal adjustments but also to the reallocation of production from mainly developed countries. In this way, in addition to the national agglomerations already established, new productive regions have also been constituted after liberalisation in some LDCs. In this way, two main forms of producing are been carried out in LDCs. This research evaluates two types of agglomerations in Mexico, with the idea of testing to what extent agglomerations with export-oriented market are more integrated into global production systems and hence, with better performance than those agglomerations producing for the domestic market. In this way, it is suggested that in the case of traditional sectors, export-oriented agglomerations are becoming more integrated and retain more value within the global value chain. The research is based in an empirical research. Four agglomerations are analysed: 2 export-oriented agglomerations and, 2 national-oriented market agglomerations. This enquiry is based on a survey of 180 firms, interviews to key entrepreneurs, national and local representatives, as well as using official statistics.