Italian SMEs and industrial districts on the move: Where are they going?

Roberta Rabellotti (), Anna M. Carabelli () and Giovanna Hirsch ()
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Giovanna Hirsch: SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont

No 115, Working Papers from SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont

Abstract: Since the second half of the 1990s the Italian economy has experienced a significant slowdown in the rate of economic growth. The ‘dwarfism’ of its manufacturing firms, their specialisation in traditional sectors and their organisation in industrial districts have been identified by many scholars as major structural weaknesses in the Italian industrial system. Nevertheless, there is a vast and flourishing empirical literature showing that many industrial districts are actually changing in terms of sector specialisation, international and innovation strategies and emergence of new forms of enterprise organisation. In this paper, we provide a critical survey of the new and different patterns of industrial organisation emerging in industrial districts.

Keywords: industrial districts; small and medium sized firms; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L23 L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-tid
Date: 2007-12
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upo:upopwp:115

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