Technological learning, competition and regional development: Emerging high-technology industrial districts in Sao Paulo State, Brazil

This study investigates the processes that underlie the rise of technology-intensive agglomerations in Brazil and their relevance to the country's ability to develop advanced technologies and internationally competitive products. My hypothesis is that the key to regional specialization in high-technology industries lies fundamentally on the political mobilization of local groups, which actively promote and take advantage of government-sponsored research for industrial applications. Collective technological learning in the industrial district thus emerges from the convergence of place-based politics and institutional strategies that foster a synergistic relationship between scientific research and the production system. The effective coordination of mutual learning through cooperation and shared resources increases the efficiency of technology search procedures by individual agents. These interactions shape the characteristics of the local production structure, reinforcing the concentration of specialized technical knowledge. The convergence of interconnected initiatives by the public and private sector thus becomes a collective regional asset. This study of 92 firms in three regions (Campinas, Sao Carlos and Sao Jose dos Campos, in Sao Paulo State) indicates that different configurations of these processes have been essential for their development. In Sao Carlos, the agglomeration is fundamentally a product of local efforts to direct university-industry cooperation toward a common developmental goal. In the other two regions, particularly in Sao Jose dos Campos, local technology-intensive industrialization stems primarily from "top-down" initiatives by the federal government, which has promoted domestic self-reliance on selected technologies through publicly-sponsored research and procurement. In all cases, there is only a partial conformance to the most dynamic models of innovative industrial complexes. The intense linkages between research and industry in these regions constitute a powerful ingredient of technology-intensive industrialization. Yet, these agglomerations remain essentially collections of isolated firms. They still lack strong inter-firm linkages and the collective organizational flexibility that arises from an efficient coordination of competitive and cooperative relationships between specialized suppliers and producers. In short, local politics have not yet been able to construct substitute mechanisms to overcome the limitations of an unstable macro-economic environment.