Building Capacity for Interfirm Cooperation in Four Appalachian States: Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. A Report to the Appalachian Regional Commission

摘要

Manufacturing networks or interfirm collaboration has gained recognition as a versatile and significant approach for achieving industrial modernization. Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia collaborated to promote the use of manufacturing networks in rural areas. The result was that the four to ten public and private representatives from each state became a learning network, formulating joint projects, and exchanging information. Five workshops were held that covered objectives of industrial modernization and the ability of networks to promote those objectives, identified major trade and business organizations and interfirm collaborations, created and managed collaborative projects, examined the different approaches that states can use to promote networking among manufacturing firms, and developed a state plan for promoting manufacturing networks. The final report describes the workshops and lists the state team members.