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A skilled and flexible labour force is often given recognition as one of the key features of industrial clusters of similar enterprises. In clusters of small enterprises, knowledge and skills are not embedded in firms, but in the local labour force and the movements of a skilled and flexible labour force serve as a channel for knowledge transfer between enterprises. Surprisingly, few studies have looked at how knowledge transfer through the labour market takes place. This paper uses the furniture cluster in Metro Cebu (the Philippines) as a case in point to identify the transfer of knowledge and skills between workers in the context of a low-technology cluster. While knowledge and skills are transferred easily between workers, there are a number of difficulties for the labour market to serve as a model for the generation of new knowledge and hence upgrading of the Cebu cluster. The difficult combination of traditional artisanal knowledge and skills with formal knowledge on furniture-making hinders the effective utilization of the labour force as the key asset for competitiveness of the cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to show how culture – shared norms and values – is challenged and used to facilitate cooperative behavior within the context of farmer field schools (FFS) in central Luzon, Philippines. The success of the FFS is primarily associated with cultural norms that encourage experiential and collective learning and eventually lead to the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) methods among the farmers. The study was conducted in central Luzon, the rice granary region of the Philippines, from 1992 to 1995 and again in 1999. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. Results indicate that a keen understanding of Filipino culture and values is essential if FFS is to be successful and if farmers are to successfully learn and practice IPM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper stresses the importance of subcontractors for the circulation of knowledge in industrial clusters. In studies on collective learning processes in clusters it often remains unclear who is involved and in which area a local knowledge base is built up. This study contributes to filling this gap by unravelling the learning process and focusing on how learning takes place at the level of artisanal subcontractors. Empirical evidence from two sub-sectors in the furniture cluster in Pampanga (the Philippines) is used to identify learning processes among subcontractors, indicating how knowledge is transferred along the value chain and diffused among them. The paper demonstrates that knowledge hardly trickles down from exporters, but that subcontractors are a major source of feedback to them. However, despite possessing the key strategic product knowledge, the subcontractors’ absence of knowledge in other areas (i.e. technical, managerial and market knowledge) weakens their bargaining position in this cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]