Agrifood cluster and transfer of technology in the Spanish vegetables exporting sector: the role of multinational enterprises.

摘要

Several studies have analysed the spread of technology by multinational enterprises. The conclusions obtained have suggested that multinationals benefit more from the local branches in terms of knowledge than what they contribute. In the agro-industrial business cluster, multinationals are present as supply companies (e.g. seeds and machinery). However, they also play an important role because, in most cases, they constitute the company demand (retail distribution chain). In this context, this study intended to verify whether multinationals, by means of these 2 forms of interaction, encourage the use of generic technology, acting as a vector (carrier) that transfers (diffuses) technology throughout their branch networks. In this sense, the role of multinational companies in the vegetables exporting sector was analysed within the cluster comprised of production and marketing companies, as well as the auxiliary industry for agriculture in the Almeria province of Spain. This study demonstrated that there are 2 important channels for the transfer of knowledge to the competition in agro-industrial clusters: multinational companies established in the auxiliary industry and demand (retail distribution chain). With regard to the case of Almeria, this horticultural business cluster, as the top supporter of the Spanish exporting sector, was found to be not very developed. Its function is not the creation of new technology which, in most cases, is not adapted to this sector. The main function is the diffusion of technology, whether it is a newly implemented method or not. It was also shown that the auxiliary industry, albeit with exceptions, only serves a purely commercial function, i.e. selling its product, taking advantage of the strong local production concentration as a method of cutting costs.