Collective Learning and Territorial Dynamics: A New Approach to the Relations between Industrial Groups and Territories

Our approach of localized industrial dynamics is based on the concept of collective learning, to the theory of which we have devoted the main thrust of our argument in this paper. In the first part of this paper, an attempt is made to reconcile analysis in terms of interindividual relations with interorganizational analysis, with a view to achieving a better understanding of territorial dynamics. This is done because it is impossible to avoid, on the one hand, individual actors and, on the other hand, the analysis of coordination modes between organizations if we are to grasp what is at stake in the ‘grey area of informal networks’ underlying territorial dynamics. In the second part, this theoretical approach will be found to be particularly helpful when it comes to analyzing territorial dynamics and, more especially, the links between large industrial groups and local innovative systems. Thus, we could widen the mesoanalytic approach which has been elaborated by French industrial economists.