著者

江﨑 洋平

出版者

一般社団法人 人文地理学会

雑誌

人文地理 (ISSN:00187216)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.64, no.5, pp.416-433, 2012 (Released:2018-01-24)

参考文献数

47

被引用文献数

1

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the process and salient features of the technological learning pursued by private firms in an industrial agglomeration area and to elucidate the impact of this learning on the agglomeration. This industrial agglomeration involves the production of cutlery and other metal housewares, and it was formed in Tsubame, Niigata Prefecture. Since the 1980s, however, the firms in the city have entered new manufacturing fields or have developed new products by pursuing technological learning with the aim of acquiring the necessary technologies. Based on the accumulation of their own metal processing technologies, particularly for stainless products, these firms have attempted to develop new technology through trial and error. To overcome difficult issues that they cannot resolve themselves, the firms have cooperated with outside institutions such as related companies, universities, and official research organizations.Spatial expansion and diversification have been under way in this technological learning observed in Tsubame. This is because the search for sources for acquiring the technologies themselves has generally tended to expand to firms or universities beyond a particular agglomeration, and extensive activities of information collection to support technological development reflecting new market demand have become dominant. Such extensive and diverse technological learning from outside agents has given rise to the diversification of technologies within this agglomeration area and the enlargement of product variety, resulting in a diversity within this previously homogenous area. Meanwhile, the fact is that the present circumstances of new technology acquisition and new product development have not necessarily led to the growth of the agglomeration area as a whole.