La resiliencia internacional de los distritos industriales/clusters (ID/C) italianos entre la relocalización del conocimiento y la deslocalización (en proximidad) de la manufactura

La literatura sobre ID/C se basa en los escritos seminales de Marshall, seguida del redescubrimiento de Giacomo Becattini el concepto de un «distrito industrial». Pero el concepto de un «cluster» fue también promovido durante la década de 1980 por Porter, y destacó la importancia de las empresas e instituciones geográficamente agrupados e interconectados, especializados en un campo particular. A pesar de que el modelo de ID/C ha sido a menudo descrito como localmente auto-contenido, varias investigaciones empíricas y nuestro análisis han señalado su creciente participación en el proceso de internacionalización. La reciente entrada y salida de empresas multinacionales (MNEs) y el fenómeno de la deslocalización no cuestionaron el modelo de ID/C per se, pero contribuyeron a mostrar hasta qué punto está interrelacionada la evolución de las economías locales y las empresas multinacionales.The literature regarding ID/C is based on seminal writings of Marshall, followed by Giacomo Becattini’s rediscovering of the concept of an «industrial district». But the concept of a «cluster» was also promoted during the 1980s by Porter, and highlighted the importance of geographically clustered and interconnected firms and institutions specialised in a particular field. Despite the model of ID/C has been often described as locally self-contained, various empirical researches and our analysis have pointed out its increasing involvement in the process of internationalization. The recent entry and exit of MNEs, and the phenomena of off-shoring did not question the model of ID/C per se, but it contributed to showing how interwoven the evolution of local economies and MNEs is

Cross-border acquisitions and technological spillover: evidence from European regional clusters

Purpose – Relying on mergers and acquisition transaction-level data set and adopting a more regionspecific approach with a focus on industry-region pairs, this paper aims to examine how cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) have an effect, in terms of technological spillover and collaboration, on European regional clusters. Design/methodology/approach – Adopting an industry-region pair approach, this study is based on a quantitative analysis of regional clusters belonging to 262 European regions and 25 patenting industries. Different thresholds of industrial specialization are used to identify clustering industries within a region. Invention performance at the regional cluster level is defined through two sets of different measurements to assess the impact of CBAs on invention quantity performance and internal and external technological collaboration. Findings – The results reveal that CBAs have a positive and significant impact on the number of patents as well as the number of internal and external technological collaborations and that this effect is persistent over time. Furthermore, through exploring the interindustry technological spillover effect of CBAs registered in the same region of a cluster but outside the cluster itself, the authors found that CBAs in a regional cluster are inclined to produce technological spillovers within the cluster but no significant effects in the other industries of the region. Originality/value – This paper is an attempt to empirically explore CBAs and technological spillover in European regional clusters. Therefore, it contributes to the debate, thanks to the use of an industry-region pair approach

Darwinism, organizational evolution and survival: key challenges for future research

How do social organizations evolve? How do they adapt to environmental pressures? What resources and capabilities determine their survival within dynamic competition? Charles Darwin’s seminal work The Origin of Species (1859) has provided a significant impact on the development of the management and organization theory literatures on organizational evolution. This article introduces the JMG Special Issue focused on Darwinism, organizational evolution and survival. We discuss key themes in the organizational evolution research that have emerged in recent years. These include the increasing adoption of the co-evolutionary approach, with a particular focus on the definition of appropriate units of analysis, such as routines, and related challenges associated with exploring the relationship between co-evolution, re-use of knowledge, adaptation, and exaptation processes. We then introduce the three articles that we have finally accepted in this Special Issue after an extensive, multi-round, triple blind-review process. We briefly outline how each of these articles contributes to understanding among scholars, practitioners and policy makers of the continuous evolutionary processes within and among social organizations and systems

A Framework of analysis of self-employment in Italy

OECD DT/LEE

The international resilience of Italian industrial districts/clusters (ID/C) between knowledge re-shoring and manufacturing off (near)-shoring

La literatura sobre ID/C se basa en los escritos seminales de Mars - hall, seguida del redescubrimiento de Giacomo Becattini el concepto de un «dis - trito industrial». Pero el concepto de un « cluster » fue también promovido durante la década de 1980 por Porter, y destacó la importancia de las empresas e institu - ciones geográficamente agrupados e interconectados, especializados en un campo particular. A pesar de que el modelo de ID/C ha sido a menudo descrito como localmente auto-contenido, varias investigaciones empíricas y nuestro análisis han señalado su creciente participación en el proceso de internacionalización. La re - ciente entrada y salida de empresas multinacionales (MNEs) y el fenómeno de la deslocalización no cuestionaron el modelo de ID/C per se, pero contribuyeron a mostrar hasta qué punto está interrelacionada la evolución de las economías locales y las empresas multinacionales

Are industrial districts formed by networks without technologies? The diffusion of Internet application in three Italian clusters

It is widely acknowledged that there has been a technological revolution in information and communication technologies (ICT), centred on Internet applications, in recent years. However, there is still a great controversy about the extent to which ICT are transforming the competitiveness of individual firms, clusters and large economic regions. On the one hand, the use of ICT could undermine those economic systems that are very distant from the strategic motors where these developments are taking place, re-establishing a re-centralization pattern in both functional (size) and geographical (space) dimensions. On the other hand, the ‘virtualization’ of the spatial economic relations could offer economic agents located in peripheral areas a better access to the development of distance relationships. In this perspective, the assumptions of the ‘vanishing’ of physical distance could represent a fascinating ‘utopia’. This paper analyses how industrial districts (IDs), which may be considered special forms of clusters, have managed the absorption of ICT (information and communication technologies). Are they formed by networks without technologies? In order to answer this question we organized an empirical research in three selected Italian clusters. We chose three cases which are representative of the empirical variation. The investigation presented here is based on a selected sample of 42 firms interviewed (all SMEs). Their behaviours in terms of ICT technology adoption were found to be quite similar in the three IDs studied. We reached the conclusion that neither size nor the entrepreneurial cognitive frame matters in hindering diffusion. Our results seem to demonstrate that firms adopted ICT technologies with respect to end customers while they were reluctant to use B2B linkages with subcontractors and suppliers (EDI and ERP technologies). However, this should not be interpreted as a lock-in phenomenon, but as a sign that they rely on flexible and trustful informal communication that cannot easily and efficiently be virtualized in electronic form