Local institutional actors and globally linked territorial development in Bekasi District: A strategic coupling?

Abstract

Ever‐changing spatial divisions of labour have led to an altered integration of many developing countries into global production networks (GPNs), leading to new spaces of territorial development in these countries. Against this background, this paper examines the role of local institutional actors in co‐shaping territorial development driven by global industrial relocation. Drawing on the case of Bekasi District, Indonesia, this paper nuances the notion of ‘strategic coupling’ in specific national and local settings of developing countries. Drawing on empirical material obtained through a series of in‐depth interviews conducted between 2012 and 2016, our analysis reveals that although local institutional actors have participated in Bekasi District's territorial development processes they sometimes exhibit a hesitant and less‐than‐creative attitude in this participation. Meanwhile, non‐local actors, most notably private developers and central government agencies, tend to have a more significant leverage in these development processes at the local level, suggesting complex institutional arrangements in tying Bekasi District's assets with GPNs.

Compatibility and correlation of multi-attribute decision making: a case of industrial relocation

“…The main reasons for IR include environmental impacts (Aus Dem Moore et al, 2019 ; Koch & Basse Mama, 2019 ; Li & Wang, 2020 ; Li et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019 ; Zhang et al, 2017 ), increasing land prices (Chen et al, 2018 ; Tang et al, 2020 ), manufacturing improvements (Jiang et al, 2018 ; Liu et al, 2021b ), industrial restructuring (Kurata et al, 2020 ; Lundberg et al, 2016 ), shared value creation (Arena et al, 2020 ), and social-economic impacts (Indraprahasta et al, 2019 ; Pan et al, 2019 ; Pappas et al, 2018 ; Yang & Gallagher, 2017 ).…”

Strategic cluster coupling

“…Other empirical research in South-East Asia on strategic coupling include work done by Van Grunsven and Hutchinson (2016) on the electronics industry in Johor (Malaysia) and by Breul et al (2019) on the oil and gas sector in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia. In addition, Indraprahasta et al (2019) used the concept to analyse the industrial Bekasi District in Indonesia, and Kleibert (2014) used it to research the offshore sector in the Philippines.…”

Forging connections: The role of ‘boundary spanners’ in globalising clusters and shaping cluster evolution

“…On the one hand, government actors seek to harness clusters’ assets to better match the needs of global lead firms (Coe and Hess, 2011) by playing a ‘facilitator’ role (Horner, 2017) to assist and encourage the formation of couplings. This is achieved through both horizontal and vertical policies, including building infrastructure, developing industrial parks, improving labour skills and relaxing industrial and planning regulations (Gao et al, 2017; Indraprahasta et al, 2019; Lee et al, 2014). Extensive institutional alignment and scalar interactions between government actors at different levels are also often necessary to create couplings (Dawley et al, 2019).…”