Institutes for Collaboration (MOC, Monday, Week 7)

Institutes for Collaboration/Institutes for Strategic Competitiveness: the "underbrush" of market economies
=> not quite government...not quite firms, either...

(IFC in the developing world)
Activities: lobbying, R&D/tech services, conferences, data collection/benchmarking, strategic planning for cluster
Accomplishments: drop tariffs, create tech institutions, exports and production increase, leading tradeshow
KFS: wide membership, international collaboration (Germany), collective action

BUT: Is training adequate? Free-rider problems? Anti-competitive (too much collaboration)? Biggest backers/contributors usually have the most to gain (Hans Steinhauser, head of Formacol = Acoplasticos big booster)...

Takeaways:
-- It's really hard to measure success in developing economies. Acoplasticos is considered incredibly effective in Colombia.
-- Building IFCs: you still have to pick industries to develop/consider opportunity cost.

(IFC in the developed world)
Activities: creates new products, contract R&D, spins out new startups
66 member firms! Startups compete with some of them...
Works really well in Switzerland; might not work elsewhere.

Why do IFCs exist?
Market imperfections => transaction costs, externalities, imperfect information, natural monopolies (in collecting industry data, for example)
Government failure => inadequate provisioning of infrastructure

Developing-economy ISCs: greater tendency towards corrective "gap filling"
Advanced-economy ISCs: usually focus on increasing coordination between firms, government, and universities

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