Córdoba, the Argentinian Silicon Valley? Common Narratives, Institutional Experiments, and Mutual Adjustments to Develop a Regional Innovation System Outside Buenos Aires

Lugano

Congreso; RSA Annual Conference 2018; 2018

Regional Studies Association

In recent years, the information and communications technology (ICT) industry moved from representing only 2.4% of industrial employment in the 1990s to 8.6% in 2016. In this in-depth case study, we analyze the opportunities and difficulties in public-private articulation not achieved through a single or paradigmatic organization but with considerable institutional experimentation to thrust a development and innovation policy that emphasizes the role of local and regional actors, institutions, and governance dynamics. We identify and analyze three key dimensions in this evolutionary process. First is the creation of a common narrative and a set of related advocacy strategies through which local SMEs aim to influence the public agenda, creating a window of opportunity for the development of an alternative policy. Second, we analyze the importance of institutional experimentation or the creation of new organizations to articulate this common narrative and transform it into a deliberate and consensual strategy. Third, we examine how this co-evolution process involved a "mutual shaping" by providing structural and functional modifications within each of the agents of the triple helix of Córdoba. Finally, we explore the fragility of this process by explaining some of the main limitations that Córdoba faces to become a more successful regional innovation system. The Córdoba case illustrates not only how a Latin American city is trying to reinvent its regional economy, it is also an example of the transition from an economic development strategy based on the idea of "industrial complex" to a local economic development (LED) approach.