From techno-scientific grammar to organizational syntax. New production insights on the nature of the firm

The paper aims at providing the conceptual building blocks of a theory of the firm which addresses its "ontological questions" (existence,boundaries and organization) by placing production at its core. We draw on engineering for a more accurate description of the production process itself, highlighting its inner complexity and potentially chaotic nature, and on computational linguistics for a production-based account of the nature of economic agents and of the mechanisms through which they build ordered production sets. In so doing, we give a "more appropriate" production basis to the crucial issues of how firm's boundaries are set, how its organisational structure is defined, and how it changes over time. In particular, we show how economic agents select some tasks to be performed internally, while leaving some other to external suppliers, on the basis of criteria based on both the different degrees of internal congruence of the tasks to be performed (i.e. the internal environment), and on the outer relationships carried out with other agents (i.e. the external environment)

You Won the Battle. What about the War? A Model of Competition between Proprietary and Open Source Software

Although open source software has recently attracted a relevant body of economic literature, a formal treatment of the process of com- petition with its proprietary counterpart is still missing. Starting from an epidemic model of innovation di?usion, we try to ?ll this gap. We propose a model where the two competing technologies depend on dif- ferent factors, each one speci?c to its own mode of production (prof- its and developers’ motivations respectively), together with network e?ects and switching costs. As the speed of di?usion of these tech- nologies is crucial for the ?nal outcome, we endogenize the parame- ter in?uencing it across the population of adopters. We ?nd that an asymptotically stable equilibrium where both technologies coexist can always be present and, when the propagation coe?cient is endogenous, it coexists with winner–take–all solutions. Furthermore, an increase in the level of the switching costs for one technology increases the num- ber of its adopters, while reducing the number of the other one. If the negative network e?ects increase for one of the two technologies, then the equilibrium level of users of that technology decrease.Increasing returns; Open-source software; Technological competition; Technology di?usion

Local spillovers, production technology and the choice to make and/or buy. Empirical evidence from Emilia Romagna

By exploiting a new rich firm-level dataset, this paper investigates the decision to subcontract production activities (outsourcing) with respect to vertically integrate them. In particular, we aim at identifying the main factors underlying the decision to either fully or partially decentralise production activities by mechanical firms located in Emilia Romagna (Italy). In so doing, we first account for firm characteristics, such as size, age and the skill composition of the labour force, then we focus on labour costs per employee, product diversity and the presence of the firm on international markets. Finally, and differently from previous research, we include in the analysis both the qualitative composition of the production process, as given by the stages of production potentially developed by the firm, and the industrial composition of the local market. On this last purpose, we estimate the relationship between the propensity and the intensity of concurrent and total sourcing and the main sources of agglomeration economies identified in the literature: specialisation economies, variety and urbanisation economies. Our estimates show a particularly strong and positive relation between the intensity of 'pure' outsourcing and our measure of variety, workforce skill intensity and the internal composition of production, while a negative relation emerges with respect to firm size, age and labour cost. Results concerning concurrent sourcing, instead, appear weaker, but, differently from the case of full outsourcing, we nd a positive relationship with rm size and product diversity.

Esternalità e sviluppo industriale di lungo periodo in Italia. Un'analisi a livello provinciale

The aim of this paper is to provide, following an approach recently developed by Glaeser et al. (1992), an empirical investigation on the role of dynamic externalities in industrial agglomeration and long-run industrial development. By means of a very large dataset containing information at provincia level for 16 sectors of Italian manufacturing industry covering a thirty year period (1961-1991), geographical specialisation and variety of the local production are investigated, for both Italy and four geographical areas (North-West, North-East, South-East and South-West). It is argued that history matters, that is, initial conditions explain a very large share of industrial agglomeration, but within the geographical areas very different patterns of externalities emerge, as well as different local labour markets for the North and South of Italy

Network Analysis of Eight Technological Systems

The systemic nature of technological change is now a well established result of much literature, of both theoretical (e.g. Carlsson & Stankiewicz, 1991; Lundvall, 1992; De Liso & Metcalfe, 1996; Edquist, 1997) and empirical (e.g. Nelson, 1993; Patel & Pavitt, 1994; Saxenian, 1994; Carlsson, 1995) nature. As the innovative process does not follow a ‘linear’, isolated path, but occurs within specific institutional contexts of interactive relationships between different organisations, concepts such as those of innovative and technological systems appear to be the most appropriate units of analysis. However, several specifications have been provided, by referring to both functional and geographical boundaries, which are differently characterised and thus determine differences in the level of analysis and in methodologies. As far as this paper is concerned, we will adopt a broad and structured notion of technological system that we deem particularly suitable to retain relationships that are not only innovative as such, but also techno-economic - i.e. related not only to the functioning of the innovative and of the production sub-systems, but also of the market (both domestic and foreign) and the institutional infrastructure. footnote Furthermore, our definition refers to national technological systems, because we claim that, even in a world of increasing globalisation and localisms, national boundaries still matter: for example, interesting idiosyncrasies and clusters emerge by looking at the ‘configurations’ that technological systems assume in different countries (Leoncini & Montresor, 1998). This paper aims at measuring and comparing some of the key relationships within a technological system by considering its intersectoral techno-economic linkages. footnote We thus intend to highlight the role of innovative flows of different magnitude within it, the location of its ‘cores’ and ‘terminals’, the inward or outward configuration of its partitions, from both a ‘cross-sectional’ and a ‘time series’ comparative perspective. The application refers to eight OECD countries along three temporal spans (see Appendix A1 for full details). It consists of a network analysis of the intersectoral innovation flows matrices we have obtained by disaggregating each technological system into 15 manufacturing sectors (Appendix A2). The paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 the methodological issues about innovation flows matrices and network analysis are briefly reviewed. Section 3 describes the empirical results. Section 4 contains the main conclusions

Counteracting cocaine production: an analysis based on a novel dataset

he debate about the effectiveness of the counteracting policies against the supply of drugs, in particular of cocaine, is very lively and intense. Indeed, since many opinions are based on certain measures rather than others, the construction of reliable indicators is one of the preconditions for a correct and concerted assessment of drug supply. The lack of reliable data on drug provision derives, on the one side, from the objective difficulties encountered in assessing the quantitative elements of drug production and drug trafficking due to its illegal nature, and, on the other side, from the lack of a standard methodological approach to the issue. This paper tries to contribute to the topic by proposing a new dataset, based on a completely new approach to the problem of measuring drug supply. We put forward a unique dataset covering cocaine related seizures in Colombia for the whole of year 2008. Data have been collected on a daily basis from the websites of the main organizations fighting against drug traffickers (Army, Air Force, National Police, Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, Armada Nacional, Fiscalia), detailing each single seizure of laboratories for the production of both basic paste and cocaine hydrochloride. By means of this dataset, we offer some accounts of the main numbers on drug supply and on drug seizures, suggesting some policy options, and arriving to an estimate of cocaine production

The automobile technological systems. An empirical analysis of four European coutries

The aim of this paper is to study the automobile industry of the most important European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy) from a sectoral, system perspective. The main relationships within and between the building blocks constituting the automobile technological system are mapped and evaluated, both in cross-sectional and in temporal terms. The importance of the sectoral TS as the unit of our analysis appears evident at both levels. Some general sectoral properties emerge, which however hold in the four countries to a di erent extent, thus suggesting how the institutional set-up works as a di erentiating element. A sustained process of change in the various elements of the automobile TS is detected, nevertheless resulting in a relatively stable path of development. The countries considered reveal di erent patterns of motor vehicles trade specialisation in di erent geographical areas, with changes over time. Also foreign direct investments show the existence of very di erent trajectories and outward/inward balances

Esternalità e sviluppo industriale di lungo periodo in Italia. Una analisi a livello provinciale

The aim of this paper is to provide, following an approach recently developed by Glaeser et al. (1992), an empirical investigation on the role of dynamic externalities in industrial agglomeration and longrun industrial development. By means of a very large dataset containing information at provincia level for 16 sectors of Italian manufacturing industry covering a thirty year period (1961-1991), geographical specialisation and variety of the local production are investigated, for both Italy and four geographical areas (North-West, North-East, South-East and South-West). It is argued that history matters, that is, initial conditions explain a very large share of industrial agglomeration, but within the geographical areas very different patterns of externalities emerge, as well as different local labour markets for the North and South of Italy

Verso il post emergenza Covid-19: 'Business as usual' o nuove opportunità?

La crisi globalescatenata dal Covid-19 appare difficile da prevedere nei suoi elementi caratterizzanti, sia per la profondità con cui ha colpito i sistemi economici dei paesi travolti dalla pandemia, sia per la difficoltà di mettere insieme i dati salienti per un apprezzamento degli effetti che già fin da ora appaiono di un’ampiezza mai sperimentata in precedenza