Italian Industrial Districts: Theories, Profiles and Competitiveness

Abstract

The paper is a contribution to the debate about the theoretical aspects, the structure, and the competitiveness of Italian industrial districts. The work first examines the theoretical strand on industrial districts ranging from Marshall to Becattini, and focusing on the contemporary distrettualism of Giacomo Becattini, where the district is essentially a socio-economic construct and an important localized productive system. Furthermore, the paper offers an updated picture of the Italian industrial districts as they are represented in the 2011 Census by the National Statistics Institute. Finally, this study underlines the resilient competitive capacity of this typical form of industrial organization. Then, through empirical literature, it analyzes the Italian district companies, and their performance and success in foreign markets, especially with regard to "Made in Italy" products.

Tax breaks for incentive pay, productivity and wages: Evidence from a reform in Italy

“…Cooperation among firms fosters the sharing of legal information and reduces bargaining costs. It is also plausible that these collaborative relations are more frequent in the central and northern regions, where the bulk of Italian industrial districts are concentrated (121 out of 141 total Italian industrial districts, as documented by Schilirò, 2017). Furthermore, sorting effects might be more pronounced in these contexts because family firms may resort to labour supply pools where workers likely have the required industry-specific skills and share the same entrepreneurial values.…”

Similaridades entre aglomerados produtivos: um ensaio teórico

“…Desses estudos, protagonizaram as regiões italianas, conhecidas por Terceira Itália, que se tornaram referência para estudos sobre agrupamentos de economias em desenvolvimento e nos efeitos benéficos que a eficiência coletiva promove nesses ambientes (Schmitz & Nadvi, 1999). Schiliro (2017), ao examinar as vertentes teóricas sobre Distritos Industriais, destacou que Marshall (1919) apresentou uma forma original de aglomeração de empresas, caracterizadas por uma forte especialização industrial, assim, atribuindo relevância a dimensão local, para a região geográfica em que as empresas do aglomerado estão inseridas.…”

Planning sustainable development of local productive systems: A methodological approach for the analytical identification of Ecoregions

“…In this view, the structural peculiarities of territories, such as their productive specialization, level of cooperation and competition between economic activities, habits, traditions, existence of relationships of trust and productive interdependencies between local and external actors, are considered to be relevant for generating the competitive advantages of firms belonging to industrial districts. While this model has importantly characterized the economic development of some regions of central and northern Italy (see, e.g., Becattini, 1979;Piore and Sabel, 1983;Pyke et al, 1992;Becattini et al, 2003;Goodman et al, 2016;Schillir o, 2017), this "districtualization" should not be considered to be an ad hoc construct to explain Italian industrialization, but rather it should be considered a model of industrial organization different from the mass production system that also distinguishes the industrial reality of other countries (Sforzi, 2008;Boix and Galletto, 2005).…”