1,214 research outputs found
The Structural Evolution of Industrial Districts and Adaptive Competitive Advantages
No full textThe work addresses the evolution of industrial district in Italy by referring to the concept of evolving competitive advantages. The key issues examined are maeasurability of economic and innovative performance of industrial districts and sustainability of performances in an evolving domestic and international settin
Spatial agglomeration and business groups: New evidence from Italian industrial districts
No full textCainelli G., Iacobucci D. and Morganti E. (2006) Spatial agglomeration and business groups: new evidence from Italian industrial districts, Regional Studies 40, 507-518. This paper is a first attempt to analyse the relationship between spatial agglomeration and firms' organizational structures. It takes advantage of a new and large data set at firm and business group level that allows one to analyse the differences in the presence and characteristics of business groups between districts and non-district areas. Overall, the results confirm the hypothesis that spatial agglomeration of business activities influences firms' organization. Groups are more widespread in industrial districts than in non-district areas; moreover, groups in industrial districts are less diversified and more spatially concentrated than groups outside industrial districts. Cainelli G., Iacobucci D. et Morganti E. (2006) L'agglomeration geographique et les groupes commerciaux: de nouvelles preuves provenant des districts italiens, Regional Studies 40, 507-518. Cet article constitue une premiere tentative d'analyser le rapport entre l'agglommeration geographique et les structures organisationnelles des entreprises. On profite d'une nouvelle banque de donnees importante aupres des entreprises et des activites commerciales qui permet l'analyse des differences de la presence et des caracteristiques des groupes commerciaux implantes dans les districts par rapport a ceux qui sont implantes dans d'autres delimitations geographiques. Tout considere, les resultats confirment l'hypothese suivant: l'agglomeration des activites commerciales influent sur l'organisation des entreprises. Les groupes s'averent plus eparpilles dans les districts industriels qu'ils ne le sont ailleurs. Qui plus est, les groupes situes dans les districts industriels sont moins diversifies et plus concentres geographiquement que ne le sont les groupes situes en dehors des districts industriels. Groupes commerciaux, Districts industriels, Agglomeration geographique, Formes d'organisation des entreprises Cainelli G., Iacobucci D. und Morganti E. (2006) Raumliche Ballung und Betriebsgruppen:neue Beweise aus italienischen Industriegebieten, Regional Studies 40, 507-518. Dieser Aufsatz stellt einen ersten Versuch dar, die Beziehung zwischen raumlicher Ballung und den organisatorischen Strukturen von Firmen zu analysieren. Er macht sich eine neue und umfassende Datenreihe auf Firmen- und Betriebsgruppenebene zu Nutze, die gestattet, die Unterschiede im Vorhandenseins und Eigenschaften von Betriebsgruppen zwischen Distrikten und nicht-Distrikten-angeho rigen Gebieten zu analysieren. Insgesamt bestatigen die Ergebnisse die Hypothese, dass raumliche Ballung von geschaftlichen Unternehmen die Organisation von Firmen beeinflusst: Gruppen sind in Industriegebieten weiter verbreitet als in nicht industriell gepragten Gebieten;daruber hinaus sind Gruppen in Industriegebieten weniger differenziert und raumlich starker konzentriert als Gruppen ausserhalb der Industriegebiete Betriebsgruppen, Industriegebiete, raumliche Ballung, Organisationsformen von Firmen Cainelli G., Iacobucci D. y Morganti E. (2006) Aglomeracion espacial y grupos comerciales: nuevo ejemplo de zonas industriales en Italia, Regional Studies 40, 507-518. En este ensayo pretendemos analizar por primera vez la relacion entre la aglomeracion espacial y las estructuras organizativas de las empresas. Con ayuda de un nuevo y exhaustivo grupo de datos sobre empresas y negocios, analizamos que diferencias existen en cuanto a la presencia y las caracteristicas de grupos comerciales en zonas industriales comparado con otras areas no industriales. En general los resultados confirman la hipo tesis de que la organizacion de las empresas se ve influenciada por la aglomeracion espacial de las actividades comerciales. Se observa que son mas comunes los grupos en zonas industriales que en areas no industriales. Ademas, los grupos en zonas industriales estan menos diversificados y espacialmente mas concentrados que los grupos de otras areas no industriales. Grupos comerciales, Zonas industriales, Aglomeracion espacial, Formas organizativas de empresasBusiness groups, Industrial districts, Spatial agglomeration, Firm's organizational forms,
Spatial Agglomeration, Technological Innovations, and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Italian Industrial Districts
No full textThe aim of this paper is to analyse the impact on firms' productivity of innovative activities and agglomeration effects among firms belonging to Marshallian industrial districts and the possible joint effect of these two forces. We study a sample of 2,821 firms active in the Italian manufacturing industry in the period 1992-1995. Our analysis uses an original data set based on three different Istituto Nazionale di Statistica statistical sources-Community Innovation Survey, Archivio Statistico delle Imprese Attive (Italian Business Register), and Sistema dei Conti delle Imprese (Italian Structural Business Statistics)-to estimate an "augmented" Cobb-Douglas production function to account for the impact of technological innovations and district-specific agglomeration effects on a firm's productivity growth. Our data set allows us to distinguish between product and process innovations, thus, through econometric analysis, we hope to achieve a better understanding of which of these two types of innovative activities benefits most from participation in an industrial district. Our empirical results show that belonging to an industrial district and making product innovations are key factors in the productivity growth of firms and that product innovations appear to have a greater effect on the economic performance of district rather than non-district firms. Copyright (c) 2008 Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc..
Industrial Districts. Theoretical and Empirical Insights
No full textThe purpose of this chapter is to review and discuss the recent contributions on industrial districts. In particular, we examine two different aspects of this literature. The first concerns the widely analysed phenomenon of corporate grouping within industrial districts. The second aspect we are interested in involves the relationships between technological innovation and industrial districts
Knowledge spillovers, related variety and firm heterogeneity
No full textEconomic geographers and regional economists have traditionally analysed the mechanisms driving learning processes and the diffusion of knowledge among local economic actors. During the past decade, the concept of «related variety» has been frequently used to denote an agglomeration force able to explain knowledge-related advantages for firms and geographically bounded productive systems, and which arises from the heterogeneity of local industries. Besides this concept, more recent studies have emphasised the role of firm heterogeneity as an alternative – but not substitute – mecha-nism for knowledge creation and diffusion. This paper discusses the factors driving the emergence of knowledge spillovers within agglomerative spaces, and conducts a critical comparison between the concepts of industrial related variety and firm heterogeneity as two potential sources of local knowledge externalities, and, thus, of local economic development
Vertical integration, organizational governance, and firm performance. Evidence from Italian business groups
No full textAssuming transaction cost economics as a normative tool, we investigate the relationship between firms' 'observed' vertical integration choices and their economic performance. We use a two-stage methodology: in the first, a measure of governance misalignment is computed as a difference between the governance form (i.e., ownership or outsourcing) predicted by transaction cost economics and the form actually observed; the second stage consists of estimating a performance equation where the misalignment variable is introduced together with a set of independent variables. Compared with previous studies, we introduce two novelties: we use the business group as the unit of analysis to detect the ownership of vertically related productions; we assess the moderating role of geographic agglomeration in reducing the need of vertical integration. Our results confirm the importance of technology and price uncertainty in influencing vertical integration; moreover, the misalignment variable is signi..
Related variety and firm heterogeneity. What really matters for short-run firm growth?
No full textIn recent years, two concepts have become key elements in economic geography: related variety and firm heterogeneity. The first one predicts that knowledge spillovers within a region/local system occur among firms operating in ‘different but related’ sectors. The second one assumes that knowledge spillovers can occur among ‘different’ firms belonging to the same localised sector/industrial cluster. Using a sample of 27,817 Italian manufacturing firms observed during the period 2010–2013, this paper analyses the role played by related variety and within-sector firm heterogeneity on short-run employment growth. The results suggest that both related variety and within-sector firm heterogeneity have a positive effect, although the latter has a higher impact than the former. These results confirm the role played by related variety, but identify firm heterogeneity as a potential additional source of local knowledge spillovers
- …
