The Faculty of Economics celebrates the Third International Congress Clustering-2018
María Dolores Parra, director of the internationalization of IVACE (Valencian Institute of Enterprise Competitiveness), and the vice-principal of Territorial Projection of the Universitat de València, Jorge Hermosilla, will open this Thursday 24 May, at 9h, the seasons of the Third International Congress Clustering-2018. As the previous editions, it will take place at the Faculty of Economics. Professors Francisco Puig, of the Department of Business Management of the Universitat de València, and Xavier Molina, of the Department of Business Management and Marketing of the UJI, are coordinators of this scientific meeting, which places Valencia in the centre of the research of cluster effect.
22 de may de 2018
As professor Puig explains, cluster effect “is the difference that the companies and territories register in several variable of achievements (profitability, competitiveness, innovation, internationalization, etc.). The origin is due mainly to the location and the organisational model of the territory”. Just like the profitability of a orange grove is not the same in Valencia than in Albacete, he adds as example, “it is also not the same the quality of the ceramic in Castellón than in Sassuolo (Italy), and neither the innovative hotels of Benidorm than in Cantabrian coast, nor the internationalisation of Japanese textile clusters than the Spanish, and for that the location of new companies, where multinationals are located and where survival is greater, is usually in clusters”.
Why does cluster effect exist? Because the activity development in the territory, exposes the professor Puig, “is made under a model of competence-cooperation that generates externalities though saving costs, skilled workers and dissemination of knowledge”. The result of this dynamic, claims, “is reflected on competitive advantages for companies difficult to achieve in another way, and for that, clusters and enterprise competitiveness are two concepts closely linked, which in Clustering-2018 will be discussed”.
One of the distinguishing elements of the Clustering Congress, points Puig, “is its nature, since while most of the organised congress are rotary and vertical, in other words, from different headquarters in a discipline and different areas of study, Clustering takes places always at the same headquarters and adopts a horizontal approach: it focus only in a field, the named clusters, but in a interdisciplinary form (economics, marketing, sociology, etc.)”. During the past editions, he adds, “its innovative and transverse nature has enabled it to analyse the phenomenon of geographical agglomerations of companies from two perspectives: diversity and depth”.
This year are presented fifty jobs, signed by professors of 35 universities from more than 25 countries. The motto of this edition of the congress is new challenges for Clustering: Physical and digital proximity. The professor Philippe Gugler (University of Fribourg-Suiza) will give the opening conference with the topic Are geographical clusters still relevant in the digital economy? and the professor Roberta Rabellotti (University Pavía-Italy) the plenary Multinationals Clustering: challenges and opportunities. Among round tables that will be celebrate, highlighted which will take place on Thursday 24 (11 to 13:15h) entitled with Clustering as a tool for innovation,in which renowned experts will discuss about challenges and opportunities that the cluster effect has in the innovation of companies. It will be also a space for a doctoral workshop and a debate about the potential of entrepreneurial ecosystem.