Madeira embroidery: A failed collective brand (1935–59)

• Autor(a) principal: Câmara, Benedita Câmara Almada
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3280
• topic: Brand; Protected denomination of origin (PDO); Cluster; Hybrid; Competitiveness; Regulation; Corporatism; Trust; Embeddedness; Coordination; Free-riding; Certification system; Embroidery; Madeira Island (Portugal); .; Faculdade de Ciências Sociais

The regional cluster of the Madeira embroidery sector in the political context of 1935 to 1959 provides the basis for an analysis of a common strategy aimed at strengthening the business competitiveness of the industry. The strategy was a government initiative aimed at improving the material welfare of workers and based on the creation of a collective brand. The aim of this paper is to show that the mixed corporatist organisation that managed the initiative was an example of hybrid governance and that the strategy failed because the regulations introduced were not successful in transforming a weak cluster into a strong one. As a result, competition was kept within a circle of low-wage production centres that left Madeira at a disadvantage.