Footwear Cluster: A History of Entrepreneurship in Crisis

The main aim of this chapter is to analyze the history of entrepreneurship in the footwear cluster during the twentieth century and the dawn of the twenty-first century, around the actions of the manufacturers installed in the city of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico. The methodological process was triangulated by three forms of approach to the object of study: the first consisted on the literature review; the second was a longitudinal analysis of socioeconomic and technological indicators; the third was the application of in-depth interviews to five footwear manufacturing entrepreneurs. The main finding was the collaborative model of the footwear cluster in the face of crisis cycles that has historically been facing; this allows to understand the historical challenges of entrepreneurship in the cluster, as well as public policies that have influenced its behavior pattern and the strategies that have outlined its entrepreneurship model.