ISBN: 3790800953
TITLE: The Evolution of Industrial Districts
AUTHOR: Cainelli, G., Zoboli, R.
TOC:

Introduction 1
The structural evolution of industrial districts and adaptive competitive advantages 3
Giulio Cainelli and Roberto Zoboli
1. Industrial districts and local systems of production: An overview of the Italian experience and the theoretical debate 3
2. Italian industrial districts and European `regional clusters' 6
3. The contribution of this book 8
3.1. Three theoretical perspectives 9
3.2. Firm re-organisation and growth 11
3.3. Patterns of formal and informal innovation 14
3.4. Diverging propensities towards internationalisation 16
4. Evolving competitive advantages? 17
4.1. Measurability and models 18
4.2. Sustainability of performances 19
Part I. Theoretical Perspectives 31
Regional governance and economic development: A European perspective 33
Gilberto Antonelli
1. Introduction 33
2. Firms and local systems of production in the Italian economy 35
2.1. The phases of development in the post-war Italian economy 36
2.2. The competitiveness of industrial districts 38
2.3. Questions of interpretations and the new needs of economic policy 39
3. Regional economic development and convergence/divergence 43
4. The allocation of the tools of economic policy and the role of the regions 50
Italian industrial districts: Facts and theories 55
Fabio Nuti
1. Introduction 55
2. Why should we study industrial districts at all? 57
2.1. What are Marshallian industrial districts? 57
2.2. A single or many concepts? 58
2.3. History of an idea 58
2.4. Historical and recent districts 60
2.5. The cyclical interpretation 63
2.6. Traditional and technologically advanced districts 65
2.7. The concept of Marshallian industrial districts revisited 66
2.8. The `wishful residual': industrial atmosphere and innovativeness 66
2.9. Externalities and trickling down 68
2.10. What kind of innovative activity? 69
2.11. Co-ordination 71
2.12. Co-operation and trust 72
2.13. Flexibility and flexible specialisation 74
3. Conclusions 75
Modelling the structure and evolution of industrial districts 78
Mario Agostino Maggioni
1. Introduction 78
2. How do industrial districts come about? Agglomeration economies and firms' clustering 79
2.1. The effect of previous locations on clustering dynamics 79
2.2. Locational benefits and costs and the development of an industrial district 80
2.3. A logistic model 84
2.4. Location process in a two-districts framework 90
2.5. Co-operative interactions 95
3. How do industrial districts work? Emergence and evolution of governance structures 100
3.1. The evolution of industrial districts: a simulation exercise 103
4. Conclusions 110
Part II. Firm Ownership and District Organisation 115
Institutional innovations in industrial districts 117
Riccardo Varaldo and Luca Ferrucci
1. Introduction 117
2. Barriers to institutional changes inside the fums 117
3. The industrial district firm between institutional specificities and barriers to changes 118
4. New competitive strategies and institutional innovation 120
5. Towards new institutional paths for districts firms 121
6. Industrial and financial policy in supporting institutional changes in districts firms 125
7. Conclusions 125
Groups of small and medium-sized firms in industrial districts in Italy 128
Donato Iacobucci
1. Introduction 128
2. The unit of analysis: companies or groups? 130
3. The presence of business groups in the Italian manufacturing industry 133
4. The causes explaining the presence of business groups among SMEs in industrial districts 135
5. The role of groups of SMEs in the evolution of industrial districts 139
5.1. Furniture groups 140
5.2. Footwear groups 142
5.3. Household appliance groups 145
5.4. Groups operating in other districts 146
6. Conclusions 148
Ownership linkages and business groups in industrial districts: The case of Emilia Romagna 155
Francesco Brioschi, Maria Sole Brioschi and Giulio Cainelli
1. Introduction 155
2. Industrial districts, ownership linkages and business group structures 156
3. The corporate grouping within the industrial districts of Emilia Romagna: the empirical evidence 158
4. The evolution of the industrial district organisation 167
5. Conclusions 171
The role of medium-sized and large firms in the evolution of industrial districts. The case of Marche 175
Valeriano Balloni and Donato Iacobucci
1. Introduction 175
2. The role of small and medium-sized firms in industrial districts 176
3. The Marche region and its industrial districts 179
4. The role of large and medium-sized firms in the industrial districts of the Marche region 188
5. Conclusions 193
Entrepreneurship, labour organisation and labour mobility in industrial districts 198
Massimo Omiccioli and Fabio Quintiliani
1. Introduction 198
2. Ownership and management structure 199
3. Labour organisation and mobility 202
4. Conclusions 204
Appendix 207
Integration and convergence in the internal dynamics of industrial districts. A case study 219
Mario Nosvelli
1. Introduction 219
2. The area of Parabiago within the textile district of Asse Sempione 220
2.1. On the existence of the footwear district of Parabiago 222
3. The evolution of the district and sub-district 227
3.1. The location quotient and shift-share analysis 227
3.2. The ASPO data bank 229
3.3. Empirical results 230
4. The Asse Sempione district and the Parabiago sub-district: sectors and territory, integration and autonomy 233
5. Conclusions 235
Appendix 239
Part III. Innovation 241
Can a Marshallian industrial district be innovative? The Case of Italy 243
Giulio Cainelli and Nicola De Liso
1. Introduction 243
2. Division of Labour, codified and tacit knowledge within industrial districts 244
2.1. Theoretical issues 244
2.2. From theory to empirical analysis: some clarifications 246
3. The empirical analysis 247
3.1. The data set 247
3.2. Some performance indicators: a descriptive analysis 248
4. The econometric investigation 249
4.1. The modelling strategy 249
4.2. The results 251
5. Conclusions 253
Are industrial districts more conducive to innovative production? The case of Emilia Romagna 257
Riccardo Leoncini and Francesca Lotti
1. Introduction 257
2. Innovative activity, organisation and market structure 258
3. Data and methodology 261
4. The empirical results 261
4.1. Innovative activity and R&D expenditures 262
4.2. Potential and actual innovative production 264
5. The role of the public sector 267
6. Conclusions 269
Environmental impact and innovation in industrial districts 272
Anna Montini and Roberto Zoboli
1. Introduction 272
2. Environmental policy, industrial innovation, and the advantages of IDs 273
3. Agglomeration dis-economies and the environmental impact of industry 277
4. Measuring air pollution by manufacturing industries in Italy 281
4.1. Estimates of air pollution in the `Local Labour Systems' of Emilia-Romagna 283
5. Responses to environmental policies in Italian industrial districts 294
5.1. Environmental investments and policy-induced innovations 295
5.2. Main features of innovative responses to environmental policy 304
6. Conclusions: unexploited `cooperative advantages'? 305
Appendix 312
Part IV. Internationalisation 317
Local engines of global trade: the Case of Italian industrial districts 319
Stefano Menghinello
1. Introduction 319
2. Industrial districts as a source of competitive advantage 320
3. Methodological Background 322
4. Some empirical evidence 326
4.1. Export performance of local industrial systems 326
4.2. Contribution of industrial districts to Italian exports 328
4.3. Output quality and variety of industrial districts exports 330
5. Conclusions 334
Small multinational groups in the Italian industrial districts: interpretations and empirical evidence from the mechanical engineering industry 336
Sergio Mariotti and Marco Mutinelli
1. Introduction 336
2. The atypical nature of Italy's interntionalisation 336
3. Internationalisation of production by the districts 339
4. Empirical findings 341
5. Conclusions 345
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