Dott. Luciano Consolati (original) (raw)

ITALIAN INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS: A MODEL OF SUCCESS OR A WEAK PRODUCTIVE SYSTEM?

Italian industrial districts: a model of success or a weak productive system? , 2012

The present contribution focuses on two issues. The first one concerns the characteristics of industrial districts and the increasing weight of these districts in the Italian system of production. The second issue is about the competitiveness of the Italian industrial districts, if they represent a model of success or rather a weak system of production. Thus, the transformation of the industrial districts is examined and the strengths and weaknesses are highlighted. One argument that comes out of this investigation is that industrial districts are strongly influenced by institutions, territory, and also by the social and cultural environment. The second argument regards the competitiveness of this Italian industrial development model, based on SMEs, which is founded on the specialization of productions, on innovation and internationalization. The paper argues that this model, which represents the “Made in Italy”, is still a strong and dynamic system which has shown good performances and it represents a paradigm of lasting competitiveness, even if it is restrained by many external chronic constraints.

Policies For The Location Of Industrial Districts In Italy And

Urban/Regional, 2004

✼ Recent global trends have affected significantly territorial and economic policies, especially in advanced-economy democracies, weakening frequently their national sovereignty. This paper, through published data, documentary sources, and interviews, offers a comparative perspective of industrial localisation's policies in Israel and Italy, focusing on the dualism national decision-making/local practice. Although they have two different political structures, both countries have shifted to greater decentralisation, increased deregulation, and more privatisation. Since the beginning of the State, Israel industrial localisation policy used tools as national and regional planning and fiscal incentives, with the objective of the industrial dispersal. But last years' profound economic, political, and social changes have led to a transformation of Israeli industrial geography, shifting changes in the government policies, and reinforcing the local-government assertiveness. Developing industrial parks has become a top priority even for rural regional council, with the risk of over-investment in too many industrial parks of too small a size. Similarly, since post-war years Italy concentrated on regenerating the economic periphery, the southern regions, through the "Cassa per il Mezzogiorno", helping finance and developing irrigation, agriculture and industrial development in the most disadvantaged areas with a policy of investments in infrastructures and financial supports to the localisation of large firms. The change of industrial models, now based on more flexible structures, has brought, almost spontaneously, the "Third Italy" phenomenon, a proliferation of 'local production systems' (LPS) where SMEs represent an high share of total employment. Based on an endogenous development model, the success of LPS is not guaranteed unless change and innovation take place among local SMEs and institutions and between the local production system and the external environment, competing areas and other spatial system. For both countries is necessary a comprehensive, strategic and flexible planning and a stable, efficient and no-bureaucratic decision-making process, at an intermediate scale between regional and local. , p. 98. 5 The Vanoni scheme, or "Schema di sviluppo dell'occupazione e del reddito in Italia nel decennio 1955-1964", pointed out unemployment and territorial unbalance of industrial development as the main problems of Italian economy, and it recognised the necessity of a coherent and explicit government initiative for addressing, directing and sustaining private actions. 6 The incentives of the Law for Encouraging Capital Investment were second and, since the 1970s, support for industrial R&D was third in terms of government expenditure.

The industrial districts' contribution to change in the Italian economy

Review of Economic Conditions in Italy, 2007

Italy became a services-oriented economy. The loss of jobs in manufacturing was less pronounced in Italy's organized industrial districts than in the rest of the country. The branches of manufacturing that typify the districts outperformed the others in terms of employment trends. In addition, the districts recorded larger employment gains in business services, including ICT-related services. In more recent years (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004) these trends have weakened in the industrial districts, which now seem vulnerable to the repercussions of global economic transformation. Whatever the causes of this vulnerability, they do not include the size of district firms. The district mode of production is the one best able to cope with fragmented and variable demand, but it is not equally well suited to competing on mass markets. If market developments are one cause of the districts' more recent problems, institutional factors also must be considered, in the light of the fact that after fifteen years of targeted industrial policy measures the districts are weaker, not stronger.

Industrial localisation and economic development of a Southern Italian region: The case of Salerno

2002

The research described in this paper is consisting of an indepth study of an important area of the Italian Mezzogiorno: the province of Salerno. The aim of the paper is twofold. The first was to identify, by means of cluster analysis, specialization of industrial areas in this province For that, some methodological points are previously selected from the current approach to development economics, that focuses both on genesis and evolution of local systems, by emphasising, among other aspects, the role of the immaterial resources and institutions. The results depict a variegated territory comprising both areas of closed economy, where the purpose of economic activity is to satisfy basic needs (food and housing), and areas that display a certain degree of economic openness towards the outside markets. Many clusters with high indexes of manufacturing specialization are classified as areas of sub furniture or as areas born by an exogenous intervention. The second aim of the research is to measure the social conditions that should foster the growth of new industrial districts within different areas of productive specialization, just identified by the cluster analysis. The approach used was the simple correspondence analysis of a set of qualitative variables surveyed, by a questionnaire given to 462 businesses in the province of Salerno.

Italian Industrial Districts: Theories, Profiles and Competitiveness

Management and Organizational Studies, 2017

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 socioeconomic 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.

The Industrial District and the 'New' Italian Economic Geography

European Planning Studies, 2002

The industrial district is one of the theoretical concepts by which Italian economic geography has rede ned a large part of its scienti c and methodological status. The successful of industrial district is linked to the explanation of the Italian model of light industrialization, that is to the role played by small rms in Italian manufacturing industry. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to know that industrial district was introduced as a theoretical paradigm to stress the territoriality of the production process and the gain of productiveness and innovativeness for the rm which sources from the embedding of economic activity within the local society where the production takes place. Support for this approach is found in the Marshallian external economies. This article addresses the importance of industrial district from the point of view of this neo-Marshallian reading of the organization of production. This framework of reference provides the basis for the formulation and implementation of local policies which recast traditional economic, social and infrastructural ones as specialist policies aimed at the creation of the institutional and environmental conditions for the competitiveness of places.

Typical products and local development: the case of Parma area

1997

The pwpose of this study is to check the presence of reciprocal synergies between typical and traditional products and local development. The area in question is the province of Parma, where the presence and intensification of relations between the primmy and secondmy 1 sector were, in the first fifty years of the centwy, the deciding factors of the economic development (Basini and Forestieri, 1989; Giacomini and Mora, 1996). To analyse this case we used the method of the chain-analyses, to study Parmigiana Reggiano Cheese (PR), and the idea of agro-industrial districts to examine Parma Raw Ham case. ' F. Arfini, Ist.Ec.Agraria-Universita.di Parma ,is responsible for § 2 C. Mora, lst.Ec.Agraria-Universita.di Parma, is responsible for § I and 3. 1 In I 890 the processing of agricultural products used 30% of the employed workers, milling industries more than a half and cheese dairies 23% of the whole. The first industry census in 19 I l showed that a good 245 firms out of 594 were interested in the processing of agricultural products. In I 927 "the most important industries of the province were those which were based on the processing of agricultural products: food preservation, dairy , milling, and pork industry." (Lo Monaco, 1930). 2 On this subject it is important to underline the privileged relation that has always characterised the agricultural world and the most important local banking company (Cassa di Rispannio of Parma, today of Parma and Piac-enza).