Redes de firmas e política industrial

Abstract

This paper explores cooperation among firms and the tendency for networking, asking how their nature might be expected to affect agents behavior. It argues that because is assumed as a condition of competitiveness in most of industries, industrial and technological policy plays a fundamental role in coordinating and stimulating network arrangements, specially when economic environment is not adequate (e.g. in situations where opportunistic behavior faces up more clearly and there is no stimulus for cooperation as a consequence). Implications for innovation and industrial coordination are discussed, pointing out the variety of network arrangements and the specific forms of intervention (industrial and technological policy) related to each of those arrangements.