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61. How does globalisation affect local production and knowledge systems? The surgical instrument cluster of Tuttlingen, Germany

Author:
Gerhard Halder
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
The recent discussion of the winners and losersfrom globalisation has given prominence to regional development and industrial clusters in the global organisation of production and know-how. Tuttlingen, in southern Germany, is the recognised world leader in the global surgical instruments industry. However, price competition from emerging low-cost locations in South and South/East Asia and Eastern Europe, and rapid technological developments in medical engineering pose new challenges for the Tuttlingen cluster. In the past, institutional joint action was one of the pillars of the cluster's success, but there are doubts as to whether such institutions can face the new challenges. New public-private initiatives suggest a way forward, but it is too early to gauge their impact. In the past there wereimportant examples of small and medium sized firms coming togetherin joint marketing, production, and research and development efforts. While they continue, local competition has become more intense, making inter-firm co-operation more difficult. Some firms do, however, co-operate with suppliers further down the value chain, particularly those in Pakistan and Malaysia. The new challenges are also leading to further differentiation, both amongst firms as well as between producers and traders within the cluster. The most radical forms of product and functional upgrading are being concentrated in the cluster' sleading large firms. Innovation seems to be linked to close ties with end-users, the concentration of knowledge in medical engineering, and changes in surgical practices and health care delivery. Thus, the cluster while the 'big fish' in its own pond of surgical instruments, is having to come to terms with being a 'small fry' in the larger sea that constitutes the global health care sector.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe, East Asia, and Germany

62. Improving Upon Nature: Creating Competitive Advantage in Ceramic Tile Clusters in Italy, Spain, and Brazil

Author:
Jorg Meyer-Stamer, Silene Seibel, and Claudio Maggi
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
This paper shows how using a combination of a cluster and a global value chain approach helps to assess local competitive strategies and upgrading possibilities. The global ceramic tile industry is dominated by two industrial clusters, Sassuolo in Italy and Castellón in Spain, which are not only dominating tile production in their respective countries and in Europe but are also the global technology leaders and the leading exporters. The Italian tile manufacturers are closely linked with capital goods manufacturers, the Spanish with producers of glazing materials. The equipment and materials producers drive technical change and innovation in tile design, whereas the tile manufacturers try to establish a competitive advantage in particular by innovating in downstream activities: training tilers, establishing diversified brands for different sales channels, and going into direct sales. Analyzing the value chain, from inputs and capital goods to final sales, offers new insights into scope and alternatives of local upgrading. It also helps to reassess the competitiveness of tile clusters in the developing world. This is done for Brazil's leading cluster which is located in Santa Catarina. Tile firms there can benefit from the fierce rivalry among Italian capital goods producers and among Spanish producers of glazing materials, as well as the rivalry between Italy and Spain. They are technology followers. However, having to deal with a volatile and very competitive market, they are innovative in downstream activities, experimenting with concepts which are not yet used by Italian or Spanish manufacturers.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Europe, Brazil, Spain, and Italy

63. Learning from each other in North and South: Local Agenda 21 in Germany and the Republic of Korea

Author:
Petra Stephan
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
This report is based on an international workshop which took place at the Institute of Development and Peace (INEF) in Duisburg/Germany in June 2000. A delegation of the Republic of Korea - including members of local communities and local governments, as well as NGO representatives – on a study trip to Germany - had been invited to exchange experiences and information about Local Agenda 21 processes in Germany and the Republic of Korea. The following papers reflect important issues which have been raised and discussed during the workshop.
Topic:
Economics and Globalization
Political Geography:
Europe, Israel, Germany, and Korea

64. Behind the Myth of the Mittelstand Economy. The Institutional Environment Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Germany

Author:
Jorg Meyer-Stamer and Frank Waltring
Publication Date:
08-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
The existence of highly dynamic and successful small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is one of the characteristic features of the German economy. They have been, and continue to be, a growth and a job machine. Their strong performance has raised interest in other countries, with less dynamic SME, which are keen to strengthen their SME sector. Learning from the German experience appears as a promising exercise.
Topic:
Economics and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

65. Key Factors of Structural Change in North Rhine-Westphalia

Author:
Claudio Maggi
Publication Date:
06-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Recent years have seen the re-emergence of industrial policies and policies for the promotion of economic activity in both industrialised and developing countries, flanked by regional and national strategies for enhanced integration into increasingly globalised international markets, improved competitiveness and sustainably dynamic economic growth. The growing popularity of these policies is also a reflection of recent currents in international economic debate, notably the argument that the recipes for stability staunchly championed by neo-liberals, which gave rise to the Washington Consensus in the early eighties, need to be complemented by more committed policies designed to strengthen international competitiveness.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Europe, Washington, and Westphalia

66. Competitiveness and Environmental Policies: The Cases of Chile and Korea

Author:
Claudio Maggi and Kern Soo Yoon
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Competitiveness and sustainability share a common aim: to use resources more efficiently. In the long run, unsustainable production patterns may lead to the depletion or degradation of natural resources, and that means loss of future competitiveness.
Topic:
Environment and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Israel, South America, Latin America, Korea, and Chile

67. No Future for SADC? Perspectives for Regional Integration in Southern Africa after the Mauritius Summit

Author:
Heribert Dieter and Henning Melber
Publication Date:
04-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Regional integration in southern Africa, although frequently regarded as a useful and necessary project, seems to have come to a standstill since 1998. After South Africa had joined SADC in 1994, many observers had hoped that the integration project would be seeing rapid progress. When, in August 1996, SADC agreed on the establishment of a free trade area, many observers regarded this as an important step forward (cf. Gibb 1998, p. 303). However, the developments since 1996 are characterised by too few steps forward and too many back. We are witnessing a combination of economic decline and lack of responsible leadership in the region.
Topic:
International Cooperation and International Organization
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

68. Sustainable Use of Biodiversity — What We Can Learn from Ecotourism in Developing Countries

Author:
Petra Stephan
Publication Date:
11-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
The General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the year 2002 as "The International Year of Ecotourism". Multilateral development institutions such as the World Bank, the Global Environmental Facility, governments in developing countries, the tourism industry as well as local non-governmental organizations all over the world count on ecotourism as a supposed panacea for development and biodiversity protection. With assumed annual growth rates from ten up to thirty percent, ecotourism is often praised as the most dynamic sector in the tourism industry. But some of the stakeholders in the tourism industry seem to use a very extended definition of ecotourism. It includes wildlife watching as well as adventure tourism. Tourism products that are advertised under the label "eco" often only have in common, that they take place in nature. A lot of these offers can be called "ecotourism-light". They only add visits to protected areas to regular package tours, for instance. The concept of "ecotourism" seems to share this fate with the concept of "sustainable development": everybody talks about it and everybody defines it in accordance with one's own interests.
Topic:
Emerging Markets, Environment, Globalization, and International Political Economy

69. New Perspektives of International and German Development Policy

Author:
Dirk Messner
Publication Date:
12-1998
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Remarks on shaping globalization: Perspectives of development cooperation and elements of global governance (Dirk Messner); Old Wine in New Skins: Some critical comments on the UNDP Reports (Franz Nuscheler); The position of development policy: a functional definition (Adolf Kloke-Lesch).
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Governance, and United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

70. Controversies on the Universality of Human Rights and the Conditionality of Aid

Author:
Franz Nuscheler
Publication Date:
12-1997
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
What is the reaction of human rights groups and academic scholars from Asia, who cannot be suspected of engaging in Western "cultural imperialism," to the challenge of "Asian values"? This INEF-Report includes the following papers: two papers presented by Sri Lankan scholars to an international conference in Colombo organized by the Goethe-Institute and the Sri Lanka Foundation; a paper by a political scientist from the Philippines read at the University of Druisburg in summer 1997; a paper on the conditionality of foreign aid presented by the editor of this INEF-Report to the above-mentioned international conference in Colombo, which was a fine example of an intercultural dialogue.
Topic:
Human Rights, Foreign Aid, Authoritarianism, Conditionality, and Universality
Political Geography:
South Asia, Philippines, and Sri Lanka