Laços como ativos territoriais: análise das aglomerações produtivas na perspectiva do capital social

Abstract

This thesis conceives and displays an analytical construct, devised for the evaluation of the development of regional clusters. This is accomplished with reliance upon the notion of Relational Social Capital or, briefly, Relational Capital. The latter translating as the ensemble of resources embedded in ties and connections that bond productive actors among themselves and with the “rest of the world”, and, as such, conditioning the nature of the business achievements they can accomplish. Such a notion was born out by bridging two formerly disjointed theoretical constructs, namely social capital and social networks, with particular focus placed upon the thematic of embeddedness and “weak ties”. Drawing from such seminal sources of reflection, the work was further enhanced, with the critical reviewing, and further inroads, into the proper literature, concerning entrepreneurship, networking and innovation; hence allowing for further insights into the dynamics of social capital, in a given territory. Three basic propositions have been thus derived, namely: i.) throughout the development process underlying a given territory, local relations, involving local productive actors, tend to coalesce, conjoined with the widening and diversification of their ties with the outside world; ii) in a given territory, innovative entrepreneurship affects both; the morphology of prevailing networks, as well as the nature of the resources embedded in these networks; iii.) firms also display a role as platforms of relationships, endowing their stakeholders with specifics relational assets, by their turn useful to spur the development of new businesses in congenial sectors. These propositions were further put to test, in the context of a field research designed and carried out in the furniture cluster around Ubá (State of Minas Gerais, Brazil). This research, articulated with those theoretical underpinnings, allowed for the construction of an innovative methodology, aimed at evaluation of territorial dynamics. It further granted the measurement of some relevant dimensions of the phenomenon. The results thus secured show, both, the usefulness of the methodological approach, as well as the explanatory power of the theoretical construct for a better understanding of territorial development. Beyond that, a call is placed on the need, in the context of analytical studies on competitiveness and regional development, to incorporate relational assets, such as social capital, to the conventional productive assets distinguished in the traditional literature.