IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pad/wpaper/0023.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evolution and Relocation in Fashion-led Italian Districts: Evidence from two Case-Studies

Author

Listed:
  • Fiorenza Belussi

    (University of Padova)

  • Alessia Sammarra

    (University of L'Aquila)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate about how, in advanced countries, industrial districts specialised in traditional manufacturing industries evolve as a consequence of new challenges linked to the globalisation process. Using a multiple case study design, the study examines the evolution of two fashion-led Italian districts: the Montebelluna sportswear system and the Vibrata-Tordino-Vomano clothing district. Our findings reveal that cluster firms’ ability to shift from manufacturing to other activities providing higher returns along the global value chain is key to understanding the effect of globalisation and relocation processes on the cluster’s long-term competitiveness. As illustrated in this study, weak learning districts are the most threatened while innovative districts are able to enact a selective process of relocation, substituting outplaced activities with more valuable ones and attracting inward investments.

Suggested Citation

  • Fiorenza Belussi & Alessia Sammarra, 2006. "Evolution and Relocation in Fashion-led Italian Districts: Evidence from two Case-Studies," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0023, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
  • Handle: RePEc:pad:wpaper:0023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://economia.unipd.it/sites/economia.unipd.it/files/20060023.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lazerson, Mark H & Lorenzoni, Gianni, 1999. "The Firms That Feed Industrial Districts: A Return to the Italian," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 8(2), pages 235-266, June.
    2. Paolo Guerrieri & Simona Iammarino & Carlo Pietrobelli (ed.), 2001. "The Global Challenge to Industrial Districts," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2422.
    3. Bell, Martin & Albu, Michael, 1999. "Knowledge Systems and Technological Dynamism in Industrial Clusters in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(9), pages 1715-1734, September.
    4. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    5. Giuliani, Elisa & Pietrobelli, Carlo & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2005. "Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Lessons from Latin American Clusters," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 549-573, April.
    6. John Humphrey & Hubert Schmitz, 2002. "How does insertion in global value chains affect upgrading in industrial clusters?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(9), pages 1017-1027.
    7. Fernando G. Alberti, 2006. "The decline of the industrial district of Como: recession, relocation or reconversion?," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 473-501, November.
    8. Meine Pieter Van Dijk & Árni Sverrisson, 2003. "Enterprise clusters in developing countries: mechanisms of transition and stagnation," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 183-206, July.
    9. Maskell, Peter & Malmberg, Anders, 1999. "Localised Learning and Industrial Competitiveness," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 23(2), pages 167-185, March.
    10. Humphrey, John, 1995. "Industrial reorganization in developing countries: From models to trajectories," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 149-162, January.
    11. Ann Markusen, 1996. "Sticky Places in Slippery Space: A Typology of Industrial Districts," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(3), pages 293-313, July.
    12. Cantwell, John & Piscitello, Lucia, 2002. "The location of technological activities of MNCs in European regions: The role of spillovers and local competencies," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 69-96.
    13. Alessia Sammarra & Lucio Biggiero, 2001. "Identity and Identification in Industrial Districts," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 5(1), pages 61-82, March.
    14. Harald Bathelt & Andersand Malmberg & Peter Maskell, 2002. "Clusters and Knowledge Local Buzz, Global Pipelines and the Process of Knowledge Creation," DRUID Working Papers 02-12, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    15. Roberta Rabellotti & Hubert Schmitz, 1999. "The Internal Heterogeneity of Industrial Districts in Italy, Brazil and Mexico," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 97-108.
    16. Biggiero, Lucio, 2002. "The Location of Multinationals in Industrial Districts: Knowledge Transfer in Biomedicals," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 111-122, January.
    17. Molina-Morales, F. Xavier & Martinez-Fernandez, M. Teresa, 2004. "How much difference is there between industrial district firms? A net value creation approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 473-486, April.
    18. Gereffi, Gary, 1999. "International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 37-70, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gebreeyesus, Mulu & Mohnen, Pierre, 2013. "Innovation Performance and Embeddedness in Networks: Evidence from the Ethiopian Footwear Cluster," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 302-316.
    2. Emanuela Todeva & Ruslan Rakhmatullin, 2016. "Industry Global Value Chains, Connectivity and Regional Smart Specialisation in Europe. An Overview of Theoretical Approaches and Mapping Methodologies," JRC Research Reports JRC102801, Joint Research Centre.
    3. Pietrobelli, Carlo & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2011. "Global Value Chains Meet Innovation Systems: Are There Learning Opportunities for Developing Countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1261-1269, July.
    4. Pietrobelli, Carlo & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2011. "Global Value Chains Meet Innovation Systems: Are There Learning Opportunities for Developing Countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1261-1269, July.
    5. Hervas Oliver,Jose Luis & Gonzalez,Gregorio & Caja,Pedro, 2014. "Clusters and industrial districts: where is the literature going? Identifying emerging sub-fields of research," INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) Working Paper Series 201409, INGENIO (CSIC-UPV).
    6. Lorenzo Ciapetti, 2011. "Technological Change, Knowledge Integration and Adaptive Processes: The Mechatronic Evolution of the Reggio Emilia District," Chapters, in: Paul L. Robertson & David Jacobson (ed.), Knowledge Transfer and Technology Diffusion, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Emanuele Bacchiocchi & Massimo Florio & Anna Giunta, 2012. "Internationalisation and the agglomeration effect in the global value chain: the case of Italian automotive suppliers," International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(3), pages 267-290.
    8. Matias Ramirez & Ian Clarke & Laurens Klerkx, 2018. "Analysing intermediary organisations and their influence on upgrading in emerging agricultural clusters," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(6), pages 1314-1335, September.
    9. Yeung, Henry Wai-chung & Liu, Weidong & Dicken, Peter, 2006. "Transnational corporations and network effects of a local manufacturing cluster in mobile telecommunications equipment in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 520-540, March.
    10. Pham, Hanh Song Thi & Petersen, Bent, 2021. "The bargaining power, value capture, and export performance of Vietnamese manufacturers in global value chains," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6).
    11. José A. Belso-Martínez, 2015. "Resources, Governance, and Knowledge Transfer in Spanish Footwear Clusters," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 38(2), pages 202-231, April.
    12. José Antonio Belso-Martínez & F. Xavier Molina-Morales, 2011. "The drivers of the open district development: a social capital approach," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 49-70, June.
    13. Fiorenza Belussi & Silvia R. Sedita, 2012. "Industrial Districts as Open Learning Systems: Combining Emergent and Deliberate Knowledge Structures," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 165-184, April.
    14. Iammarino, Simona & McCann, Philip, 2006. "The structure and evolution of industrial clusters: Transactions, technology and knowledge spillovers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1018-1036, September.
    15. Andrea Morrison & Carlo Pietrobelli & Roberta Rabellotti, 2006. "Global Value Chains and Technological Capabilities: A Framework to Study Industrial Innovation in Developing Countries," KITeS Working Papers 192, KITeS, Centre for Knowledge, Internationalization and Technology Studies, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy, revised Dec 2006.
    16. Simona Iammarino & Philip McCann, 2010. "The Relationship between Multinational Firms and Innovative Clusters," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Gancarczyk, Marta & Gancarczyk, Jacek, 2018. "Proactive international strategies of cluster SMEs," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 59-70.
    18. Belussi , Fiorenza, 2015. "The international resilience of Italian industrial districts/clusters (ID/C) between knowledge re-shoring and manufacturing off (near)-shoring," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 32, pages 89-113.
    19. F. Colozza & R. Boschma & A. Morrison & C. Pietrobelli, 2021. "The importance of global value chains and regional capabilities for the economic complexity of EU-regions," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2139, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Dec 2021.
    20. Giuliani, Elisa & Bell, Martin, 2005. "The micro-determinants of meso-level learning and innovation: evidence from a Chilean wine cluster," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 47-68, February.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pad:wpaper:0023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Raffaele Dei Campielisi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dspadit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.