Individual Contacts, Collective Patterns - Prato 1975-97, A Story of Interactions

Abstract

This article presents an agent-based model (ABM) of an Italian textile district where thousands of small firms specialize in particular phases of fabrics production.It is an empirical model because it reconstructs the communications between firms when they arrange production chains. In their turn, production chains reflect into the pattern of road traffic in the geographical areas where the district extends.It is a methodological model because it aims to show that ABMs can be used to reconstruct a web of movements in geographical space. ABMs are proposed as a tool for Hägerstrand's "time-geography".

Will industrial districts exploit B2B? A local experience and a general assessment

“…On the one hand, a certain degree of industry concentration took place, especially in the sense that a lot of the smallest businesses had disappeared [6,17]. On the other hand, the competitive advantage of Prato had shifted from low-price of a few standard products to the high-variety of fabrics that a system of many small production units is able to offer [1,4,5,17,18]. However, since the first decade of the twenty-first century the competition of Chinese producers is undermining the competitive advantage of the Pratese industry.…”