Trainers by design : a case study of inter-firm learning, institution building and local governance in western Mexico

Studies of international economic development often feature the competitive gains from inter-firm cooperation. By cooperating, firms within a region can draw on their collective resources and experience to test out new production processes and techniques; share the risks associated with system-wide upgrades and improvements; and identify and transition to more secure niche markets. What many development analysts and practitioners often forget, however, is that local economic actors do not always realize these benefits themselves, nor in unison. In recent times, sophisticated manufacturers have been known instead to employ less cooperative survival strategies, including disassociating themselves from their existing manufacturing base and especially from local colleagues with less training and experience. What then leads firms to work together and cooperate? This is the central question of this dissertation and case study of apparel manufacturing in Guadalajara, Mexico. Since the mid-1990s, a growing number of sophisticated, medium sized apparel makers in the region have been working with smaller sized, less experienced or barebones subcontractors and in the process, have established dynamic upgrading and learning alliances. Together these firms are having to "unlearn" an entrenched relational pattern based on strict production hierarchies and centralized forms of control; establish a new set of rules and routines that are more suitable for open learning and joint decision making; and finally, develop a shared "identity" around which to build out and legitimize their collective activities and experience.