Study of a Relational-Cognitive Network in Costa Rica: The Case of the Special Economic Zone for Medical Devices in El Coyol, Costa Rica
Keywords:
Special Economic Zones, Clusters, Relational networks, Costa RicaAbstract
The global medical device industry has been experiencing and is expected to experience an annual continuous growth of 5,6% in the 8 year period 2017 until 2024 (Evaluate, p. 10 ). This represents an amount in sales of approximately US$595,000. Costa Rica is not an exception to this medical device producers’ expansion. As a result of the government’s promotion of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) with interesting fiscal and corporate benefits for multinational (MT) firms since the early 1990´s, the country has become the ‘’second largest exporter of medical devices in Latin America’’ (Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas para el Desarrollo, 2019, para. 3) This paper’s aim is to develop a relational economic geographic and cognoscitive geographical approach towards the analysis of how ‘knowledge´ relational networks; formed by local universities and the medical device MT producers, can contribute to the creation of socio-spatial interactions aiming at concrete economic changes and outcomes. Such relational networks also experience a "multiplying cognitive process, that increases the size and quality of intellectual and social capital that is embedded in a particular place" (Rullani, p. 2). These would in turn be reflected in a harmonious and sustainable business relationship with the host country, and the local territory in which the SEZ is located. Informal institutional arrangements (actions and practices such as participation in job fairs and in conjunction with the local universities) are strong motivations for the medical MT firms in El Coyol, Costa Rica to maintain a harmonious and sustainable business relationship with the host territory.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright and Open Access Policy
The Review of Socio-Economic Perspectives (RSEP) is committed to the principles of open access and the widest possible dissemination of scholarly knowledge. The journal provides immediate and unrestricted access to all published content, enabling readers worldwide to freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and link to the full texts of articles without financial, legal, or technical barriers.
RSEP supports the principles of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), which advocates free and unrestricted access to peer-reviewed scholarly research.
Copyright Ownership
Authors retain the copyright of their published works.
By submitting and publishing their manuscripts in RSEP, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce, distribute, archive, index, and preserve the work in electronic and other formats for scholarly communication purposes.
The journal does not require authors to transfer copyright ownership to the publisher. Authors remain the legal copyright holders of their work after publication.
Licensing Policy
Beginning with Volume 2025, all articles published in RSEP are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, users are permitted to:
- Read, download, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
- Share the work with others;
- Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material;
provided that:
- Appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the journal;
- A link to the license is provided;
- Any changes made to the original work are clearly indicated;
- The material is not used for commercial purposes.
The full license terms are available at:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Previous Licensing Policy
Articles published before Volume 2025 were distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The CC BY 4.0 license permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source.
Articles published under CC BY 4.0 remain subject to the licensing terms that were in effect at the time of publication and are not retroactively relicensed.
Rights Retained by Authors
Authors retain the right to:
- Share their published articles on personal websites, institutional repositories, and academic networking platforms;
- Reuse parts or all of their work in future publications, books, teaching materials, and presentations;
- Deposit the published version of the article in repositories without embargo;
- Disseminate and promote their research freely.
Rights Granted to the Publisher
Authors grant RSEP the right to:
- Publish and disseminate the work as the original publisher;
- Archive and preserve the article permanently;
- Include the article in indexing, abstracting, and database services;
- Maintain the official version of record;
- Promote and distribute the published work through journal platforms and scholarly communication channels.
Open Access Statement
RSEP is a fully open-access journal. All articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication without subscription fees or access restrictions.
No embargo period is applied. Readers may access and use published content in accordance with the applicable Creative Commons license.
The journal believes that open access increases the global visibility, accessibility, usage, and impact of scholarly research while promoting the free exchange of scientific knowledge.
License Consistency
To ensure transparency and compliance with international indexing standards, the licensing information displayed on the journal website, article metadata, PDF files, and publishing platforms will remain consistent and accurately reflect the licensing terms applicable to each published volume.
