Structural and Relational Dynamics in Networks of Firms: The Case of the Packaging Supply Chain in Montecchio

Abstract

This paper studies the structural and the relational dynamics characterizing the development process of a local supply chain specializing on the production of packaging machines. The focus is on two major aspects. The first is intermediation and trust management between a local and a global supply chain. The second is learning. Our findings are mainly two. The first is to show that the communication channel between local and global tends, as consequence of the increasing demand for trust and trustworthiness along the global supply chain, to structure into two levels. The first, that of leadership, is specializing on global communication and coordination. The second, that of coordination, tends to specialize on local communication and coordination. This organizational arrangement has the major advantage of increasing the level of trust transferability between these two dimensions of interaction. Our second findings is to show the emergence of cooperative forms learning based on explicit, rather than simply tacit, partnership between local partners. Our findings are based on an exploratory case study analysis of a local supply chain.

Keywords: Industrial district, supply chain management, knowledge management and learning, trust

JEL Classification: L22, L64, R11