The aim of this article is to broaden the notion of « local productive system » beyond the specific case of "districts" of small firms specialized in traditional products. I use the criterion of the existence of cooperations that coexist with competition relations within a set of firms of a...

Recent developments in economic activity call for a renewal of the tools for analyzing the impact of agglomeration on economic activity. By drawing on the ideas of Paul Claval in relation to cities and on those of Alfred Marshall concerning industrial districts, we propose to use thenotion of...

Creation of innovative companies is supposed to be one of the driving forces of local innovation systems development, but it has not been often studied from a spatial perspective. Do innovative companies tend to geographically concentrate ? How do founders choose the place where they settle...

This paper discusses the impact of entrepreneurs in creating a district and an ethnic community. More particularly, the last four decades have seen Portuguese residing in Montreal develop a complex and prosperous community. They have started up organisations, enterprises and communication and...