Strategies for business cooperation in the footwear industry in São Paulo (Brazil): the experience of the industrial poles of Franca and Birigui

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate how, in the context of the restructuring process, under way since the early 1990’s, business strategies, guided by building corporation networks inside and outside the chain of production and the establishment of a system of shared governance between the links of that same chain, resulted in a dynamic, economic and social development significantly more robust in the productive territory where they were tried. For the discussion of this problem, it is relied on the study of the two major poles of shoes manufacturing in the State of São Paulo: Franca, specialized in men’s footwear, and Birigui, specialized in children’s shoes.