MEASURING THE DECLINE OF A MARSHALLIAN INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT: THE BIRMINGHAM JEWELLERY QUARTER Lisa de Propris, Luciana Lazzeretti To cite this version: Lisa de Propris, Luciana Lazzeretti. MEASURING THE DECLINE OF A MARSHALLIAN INDUS- TRIAL DISTRICT: THE BIRMINGHAM JEWELLERY QUARTER. Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2009, 43 (09), pp.1135-1154. 10.1080/00343400802070894. hal-00526545 HAL Id: hal-00526545 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00526545 Submitted on 15 Oct 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. 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Regional Studies For Peer Review Only MEASURING THE DECLINE OF A MARSHALLIAN INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT: THE BIRMINGHAM JEWELLERY QUARTER Journal: Regional Studies Manuscript ID: CRES-2006-0307.R2 Manuscript Type: Main Section L22 - Firm Organization, Market Structure: Markets vs. Hierarchies; Vertical Integration < L2 - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior < L - Industrial Organization, N01 - Development of the JEL codes: Discipline: Historiographical; Sources; Methods < N0 - General < N - Economic History, O14 - Industrialization; Manufacturing; Service Industries; Tech Choice < O1 - Economic Development < O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth Keywords: industrial district, firm demography, firm ecology, cluster lif cycle http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Page 1 of 36 Regional Studies 1 2 3 4 5 6 MEASURING THE DECLINE OF A MARSHALLIAN INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT: 7 8 THE BIRMINGHAM JEWELLERY QUARTER 9 10 ♠ ♦ 11 Lisa De Propris and Luciana Lazzeretti 12 13 ♠ The University of Birmingham 14 ♦ 15 The University of Florence 16 For Peer Review Only 17 First received: December 2006 18 Accepted: December 2007 19 20 21 22 ABSTRACT 23 This paper presents the findings of a study on the decline of a typical Marshallian industrial 24 25 district: the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter (UK). The paper contributes to the current debate on 26 clusters’ life cycle, by presenting a multidisciplinary methodology that combines historical and 27 economic analyses with demography and organisational ecology models. We seek to explore the 28 patterns of firms’ birth and mortality rates, as well as firm density across branches of production 29 activities to measure and understand the decline of the Jewellery Quarter over the last decades. 30 31 32 33 Key words: Marshallian industrial districts, cluster life cycle and ecological theory. 34 JEL classification: L23, N80 and O14 35 36 Mesurer le déclin d’un district industriel du type Marshall: 37 38 le quartier de la bijouterie à Birmingham. 39 40 41 De Propris & Lazzeretti 42 43 44 45 Cet article cherche à présenter les résultats provenant d’une étude au sujet du déclin d’un district 46 industriel du type Marshall: à savoir, le quartier de la bijouterie à Birmigham (R-U). L’article 47 contribue au débat actuel sur le cycle de vie des regroupements d’entreprises, en présentant une 48 méthodologie pluridisciplinaire qui associe des analyses chronologiques et économqiues aux 49 modèles de la démographie et de l’écologie organisationnelle. On cherche à étudier la structure des 50 51 taux de naissance et de décès des entreprises, ainsi que la densité du parc d’entreprises à travers des 52 branches d’activités de production afin de mesurer et comprendre le déclin du quartier de la 53 bijouterie pendant les décennies récentes. 54 55 Districts industriels du type Marshall / Cycle de vie des regroupements / Théorie écologique 56 57 58 59 Classement JEL: L23; N80; O14. 60 Messung des Niedergangs eines Marshallschen Industriedistrikts: das Juwelierviertel von Birmingham http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Regional Studies Page 2 of 36 1 2 Lisa De Propris and Luciana Lazzeretti 3 4 5 6 ABSTRACT 7 In diesem Artikel werden die Ergebnisse einer Studie über den Niedergang eines 8 typischen Marshallschen Industriedistrikts vorgestellt, nämlich des Juwelierviertels von 9 Birmingham (GB). Der Artikel versteht sich als Beitrag zur aktuellen Debatte über den 10 Lebenszyklus von Clustern; hierfür präsentieren wir eine multidisziplinäre Methodologie, in 11 12 der historische und ökonomische Analysen mit demografischen und organisationellen 13 Ökologiemodellen kombiniert werden. Wir untersuchen die Muster der Raten von 14 Firmengründungen und -schließungen sowie die Firmendichte in verschiedenen Branchen 15 der produzierenden Industrie, um den Niedergang des Juwelierviertels in den letzten 16 Jahrzehnten zu Formessen undPeer zu verstehen. Review Only 17 18 19 20 21 Key words: 22 Marshallsche Industriedistrikte 23 Lebenszyklus von Clustern 24 25 Ökologische Theorie 26 27 JEL classification: L23, N80 and O14 28 29 Medición del declive de un distrito industrial marshalliano: el Jewellery Quarter de 30 Birmingham 31 32 Lisa De Propris and Luciana Lazzeretti 33 34 35 ABSTRACT 36 En este artículo presentamos los resultados de un estudio sobre el declive de un 37 38 distrito industrial marshalliano típico: el Jewellery Quarter (barrio de las joyas) en 39 Birmingham (RU). Aquí contribuimos al debate actual sobre el ciclo de vida de las 40 aglomeraciones presentando una metodología multidisciplinaria que combina los análisis 41 históricos y económicos con los modelos demográficos y la ecología organizativa. Lo que 42 pretendemos es analizar los patrones de tasas de nacimientos y mortalidad de las 43 44 empresas, así como su densidad en todos los sectores de las actividades de producción 45 para medir y entender el declive del Jewellery Quarter en las últimas décadas. 46 47 48 Key words: 49 Distritos industriales marshallianos 50 51 Ciclo de vida de aglomeración y teoría ecológica 52 53 JEL classification: L23, N80 and O14 54 55 56 57 Contacting author: Dr. Lisa De Propris 58 Birmingham Business School 59 The University of Birmingham 60 B15 2TT Birmingham Tel: 0121 414 6258 E-mail: [email protected] - 1 - http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Page 3 of 36 Regional Studies 1 2 3 4 Co-author: [email protected] 5 6 7 8 9 10 (a) The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the British Academy for the funding 11 of this research (Grant No. SG-33827). The authors would also like to thank David Bailey, Gabi 12 Dei Ottati, Marco Bellandi, Davide Parrilli and two anonymous referees for useful comments and 13 14 suggestions. The usual disclaimers apply. 15 16 For Peer Review Only 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 - 2 - http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Regional Studies Page 4 of 36 1 2 1. Introduction 3 4 Over the last two decades, there has been a flourishing debate on the nature, structure and 5 6 functioning of various forms of clustering and networking. However, contributions on the life cycle 7 of local systems have been much fewer and have mainly tended to look at their emergence, growth, 8 9 and decline/revival through either qualitative or quantitative analyses (see SWANN et al , 1998; 10 11 SCOTT , 2000; WOLFE and GERTLER , 2004; MASKELL , 2001 and BRESNAHAN et al , 2001).. 12 13 This paper contributes to such a debate with a composite and multi-disciplinary methodology 14 15 (HEDRON) that combines historical, economic and industrial analyses with demographic and 16 ecological modelling.For Demography Peer and population Review ecology models Only (HANNAN and FREEMAN , 1989; 17 18 CARROLL , 1984) were originally used to study variations in the organisational diversity of society 19 20 and were only later applied to economics. Indeed the novelty of this methodology is to extend the 21 22 application of firm demography and population ecology models to organisational forms like local 23 production systems and, in particular, to industrial districts, as systems of co-located firms grouped 24 25 in specific sectors and interlinked by complementarities and synergies. This paper presents an 26 27 example of cross-fertilisation between industrial organisation and the organisation ecology models 28 29 (BOONE and VAN WITTELOOSTULIJN , 1995), in fact it refers to a dynamic community approach 30 31 centred on understanding populations’ co-evolution (the latter being one the most interesting 32 streams of the organisation ecology, see AMBURGEY and RAO ,1996). 33 34 We apply such a methodology to study the decline of the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter in 35 36 Birmingham (UK) from 1880 to today. The jewellery trade first appeared in Birmingham in the 37 38 mid-eighteenth century and embedded itself in the vital and vibrant industrial atmosphere that the 39 city had to offer being at the heart of the British Industrial Revolution. The Birmingham Jewellery 40 41 Quarter grew in size and its organisation of production started to become networked and complex 42 43 until 1860s when it presented the characteristics of a typical Marshallian industrial district 44 1 45 (MARSHALL , 1895 and 1919). Its fortunes, however, depended on external factors such as fashion, 46 input prices and availability, and technological changes, as well as major historical events like the 47 48 two World Wars. 49 50 In our paper, we seek to explore whether and how the patterns of firms’ and sectors’ birth and 51 52 mortality rates explain the decline of the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter as an exemplary case of a 53 54 typical Marshallian industrial district. In this study we investigate the decline rather than the ‘death’ 55 of a Marshallian industrial district, since the Quarter is still the home of a concentration of jewellery 56 57 manufacturing and retailing activities within a tight web of streets.