When technology innovation is not enough, new competitive paradigms, revisiting the Spanish ceramic tile sector

As a result of the development of new industrialised countries such as China and other Southern Asian economies, traditional competitive paradigms based in advantages related to costs and quality efficiencies are no longer sufficient. These previous classical paradigms related competitiveness between the degree of technology innovation and the employment of cluster's resources by the incumbents of the industry. However, the combination of adequate knowledge and relationship management with marketing efforts brings forth a reconsideration of the present competitive models which go beyond those analyses from the point of view of clusters. The objective of this investigation will analyse the governance structure of the territorial value chain in the Spanish ceramic tile cluster, through the understanding of previous and current roles of several industries involved in the value creation system. By way of, both case study and quantitative methodology approach, the authors will explore the paradigm change where traditional chain actors are losing their grip on their contribution to the territorial value creation system as new actors appear with a more stable status.