IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v30y2021i3p762-777..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social capital, resilience, and regional diversification in Italy
[Social capital, innovation and growth: evidence from Europe]

Author

Listed:
  • Roberto Antonietti
  • Ron Boschma

Abstract

This article investigates the role of social capital for the entry and exit of industries in Italian provinces between 2004 and 2010. Results show that bridging social capital positively contributes to the net entry of new industries, especially when they are unrelated to existing specializations in a region, but it loses its impact on regional diversification during the economic crisis. Bonding social capital, instead, makes regions resilient in times of crisis, by reducing the probability of exit of industries. However, bonding social capital is also bad for regional resilience, as it keeps on having a negative impact on the entry of new industries in regions during an economic downturn.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberto Antonietti & Ron Boschma, 2021. "Social capital, resilience, and regional diversification in Italy [Social capital, innovation and growth: evidence from Europe]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(3), pages 762-777.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:30:y:2021:i:3:p:762-777.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtaa052
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Riccardo Crescenzi & Luisa Gagliardi & Marco Percoco, 2013. "The ‘Bright’ Side of Social Capital: How ‘Bridging’ Makes Italian Provinces More Innovative," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Riccardo Crescenzi & Marco Percoco (ed.), Geography, Institutions and Regional Economic Performance, edition 127, pages 143-164, Springer.
    2. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2016. "Long-Term Persistence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 14(6), pages 1401-1436, December.
    3. Christoph Hauser & Gottfried Tappeiner & Janette Walde, 2007. "The Learning Region: The Impact of Social Capital and Weak Ties on Innovation," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 75-88.
    4. Frank Neffke & Martin Henning & Ron Boschma, 2011. "How Do Regions Diversify over Time? Industry Relatedness and the Development of New Growth Paths in Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 87(3), pages 237-265, July.
    5. Beugelsdijk, S. & Smulders, J.A., 2009. "Bonding and Bridging Social Capital and Economic Growth," Discussion Paper 2009-27, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. Forte, Anabel & Peiró-Palomino, Jesús & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2015. "Does social capital matter for European regional growth?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 47-64.
    7. Stephen Knack & Philip Keefer, 1997. "Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1251-1288.
    8. Westlund, Hans & Bolton, Roger, 2003. "Local Social Capital and Entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 77-113, September.
    9. Sabatini, Fabio, 2009. "Social capital as social networks: A new framework for measurement and an empirical analysis of its determinants and consequences," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 429-442, June.
    10. Roberto Camagni & Roberta Capello, 2013. "Regional Competitiveness and Territorial Capital: A Conceptual Approach and Empirical Evidence from the European Union," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(9), pages 1383-1402, October.
    11. Anne Nygaard Tanner, 2014. "Regional Branching Reconsidered: Emergence of the Fuel Cell Industry in European Regions," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(4), pages 403-427, October.
    12. Frank Neffke & Anne Otto & César Hidalgo, 2016. "The mobility of displaced workers: How the local industry mix affects job search strategies," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1605, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Mar 2016.
    13. Ron Martin, 2012. "Regional economic resilience, hysteresis and recessionary shocks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-32, January.
    14. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2013. "The Emergence of New Industries at the Regional Level in S pain: A Proximity Approach Based on Product Relatedness," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 89(1), pages 29-51, January.
    15. Ron Boschma & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Dieter Franz Kogler, 2015. "Relatedness and technological change in cities: the rise and fall of technological knowledge in US metropolitan areas from 1981 to 2010," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(1), pages 223-250.
    16. Ron Boschma, 2015. "Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Resilience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 733-751, May.
    17. Guido Tabellini, 2010. "Culture and Institutions: Economic Development in the Regions of Europe," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 677-716, June.
    18. Roberto Antonietti & Maria Rosaria Ferrante & Riccardo Leoncini, 2016. "Local market size, social capital and outsourcing: evidence from Emilia Romagna," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 243-260, June.
    19. Andr�s Rodr�guez-Pose, 2013. "Do Institutions Matter for Regional Development?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 1034-1047, July.
    20. Matthias Bürker & G. Alfredo Minerva, 2014. "Civic capital and the size distribution of plants: short-run dynamics and long-run equilibrium," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 797-847.
    21. Alexander Ebner, 2016. "Editorial: Exploring Regional Varieties of Capitalism," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 3-6, January.
    22. Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd & van Schaik, Ton, 2005. "Social capital and growth in European regions: an empirical test," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 301-324, June.
    23. Danny MacKinnon & Andrew Cumbers & Andy Pike & Kean Birch & Robert McMaster, 2009. "Evolution in Economic Geography: Institutions, Political Economy, and Adaptation," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 85(2), pages 129-150, April.
    24. Ron Boschma, 2017. "Relatedness as driver of regional diversification: a research agenda," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 351-364, March.
    25. Edward J. Malecki, 2012. "Regional Social Capital: Why it Matters," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 1023-1039, June.
    26. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 526-556, June.
    27. Annamaria Nifo & Gaetano Vecchione, 2014. "Do Institutions Play a Role in Skilled Migration? The Case of Italy," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(10), pages 1628-1649, October.
    28. Jiaochen Liang, 2017. "Trade shocks, new industry entry and industry relatedness," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(12), pages 1749-1760, December.
    29. Jing Xiao & Ron Boschma & Martin Andersson, 2018. "Resilience in the European Union: the effect of the 2008 crisis on the ability of regions in Europe to develop new industrial specializations," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(1), pages 15-47.
    30. Nicola Cortinovis & Jing Xiao & Ron Boschma & Frank G van Oort, 2017. "Quality of government and social capital as drivers of regional diversification in Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(6), pages 1179-1208.
    31. Danny MacKinnon & Andrew Cumbers & Andy Pike & Kean Birch & Robert McMaster, 2009. "Evolution in Economic Geography: Institutions, Political Economy, and Adaptation," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(2), pages 129-150, April.
    32. Alfred Kleinknecht, 1987. "Innovation Patterns in Crisis and Prosperity," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-18559-7, December.
    33. Boschma, Ron & Capone, Gianluca, 2015. "Institutions and diversification: Related versus unrelated diversification in a varieties of capitalism framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1902-1914.
    34. Ron Boschma, 2017. "Relatedness as driver behind regional diversification: a research agenda," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1702, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2017.
    35. Andy Pike & Stuart Dawley & John Tomaney, 2010. "Resilience, adaptation and adaptability," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 3(1), pages 59-70.
    36. David L. Rigby, 2015. "Technological Relatedness and Knowledge Space: Entry and Exit of US Cities from Patent Classes," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(11), pages 1922-1937, November.
    37. Neffke, Frank M.H. & Otto, Anne & Hidalgo, César, 2018. "The mobility of displaced workers: How the local industry mix affects job search," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 124-140.
    38. Anne Nygaard Tanner, 2014. "Regional Branching Reconsidered: Emergence of the Fuel Cell Industry in European Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(4), pages 403-427, October.
    39. Emanuele Felice, 2012. "Regional convergence in Italy, 1891–2001: testing human and social capital," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 6(3), pages 267-306, October.
    40. Akçomak, I. Semih & ter Weel, Bas, 2009. "Social capital, innovation and growth: Evidence from Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 544-567, July.
    41. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Marco Di Cataldo, 2015. "Quality of government and innovative performance in the regions of Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 673-706.
    42. Koen Frenken & Frank Van Oort & Thijs Verburg, 2007. "Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Economic Growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 685-697.
    43. Stuart Dawley, 2014. "Creating New Paths? Offshore Wind, Policy Activism, and Peripheral Region Development," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(1), pages 91-112, January.
    44. Dieter F. Kogler & David L. Rigby & Isaac Tucker, 2013. "Mapping Knowledge Space and Technological Relatedness in US Cities," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(9), pages 1374-1391, September.
    45. Fabio Sabatini, 2008. "Social Capital and the Quality of Economic Development," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 466-499, August.
    46. Stuart Dawley, 2014. "Creating New Paths? Offshore Wind, Policy Activism, and Peripheral Region Development," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(1), pages 91-112, January.
    47. Dan O'Donoghue & Bill Gleave, 2004. "A Note on Methods for Measuring Industrial Agglomeration," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 419-427.
    48. David Bailey & Stewart MacNeill, 2008. "The Rover Task Force: A case study in proactive and reactive policy intervention?," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 109-124, November.
    49. Riccardo Crescenzi & Luisa Gagliardi & Marco Percoco, 2013. "Social Capital and the Innovative Performance of Italian Provinces," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(4), pages 908-929, April.
    50. Jesús Peir�-Palomino & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2015. "Social Capital, Investment and Economic Growth: Some Evidence for Spanish Provinces," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 102-126, March.
    51. Filippetti, Andrea & Archibugi, Daniele, 2011. "Innovation in times of crisis: National Systems of Innovation, structure, and demand," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 179-192, March.
    52. Tom Kemeny & Abigail Cooke, 2017. "Urban Immigrant Diversity and Inclusive Institutions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 93(3), pages 267-291, May.
    53. Kevin Morgan, 2017. "Nurturing novelty: Regional innovation policy in the age of smart specialisation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(4), pages 569-583, June.
    54. Ron Martin & Peter Sunley, 2015. "On the notion of regional economic resilience: conceptualization and explanation," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-42.
    55. Carmen Echebarria & Jose M. Barrutia, 2013. "Limits of Social Capital as a Driver of Innovation: An Empirical Analysis in the Context of European Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 1001-1017, July.
    56. Frank Neffke & Martin Henning & Ron Boschma & Karl-Johan Lundquist & Lars-Olof Olander, 2011. "The Dynamics of Agglomeration Externalities along the Life Cycle of Industries," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 49-65.
    57. Susan Christopherson & Jonathan Michie & Peter Tyler, 2010. "Regional resilience: theoretical and empirical perspectives," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 3(1), pages 3-10.
    58. Nicholas Charron & Lewis Dijkstra & Victor Lapuente, 2014. "Regional Governance Matters: Quality of Government within European Union Member States," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 68-90, January.
    59. Vicente Donoso & V�ctor Mart�n & Asier Minondo, 2015. "Do Differences in the Exposure to Chinese Imports Lead to Differences in Local Labour Market Outcomes? An Analysis for Spanish Provinces," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(10), pages 1746-1764, October.
    60. Simone Strambach & Benjamin Klement, 2011. "Cumulative and Combinatorial Micro-dynamics of Knowledge: The Role of Space and Place in Knowledge Integration," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(11), pages 1843-1866, November.
    61. Meric Gertler, 2010. "Rules of the Game: The Place of Institutions in Regional Economic Change," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 1-15.
    62. A. Nifo & G. Vecchione, 2015. "Measuring Institutional Quality in Italy," Rivista economica del Mezzogiorno, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1-2, pages 157-182.
    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. Nicola Cortinovis & Jing Xiao & Ron Boschma & Frank G van Oort, 2017. "Quality of government and social capital as drivers of regional diversification in Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(6), pages 1179-1208.
    2. Mathieu P A Steijn & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Ron Boschma & David L Rigby, 2023. "Technological diversification of U.S. cities during the great historical crises," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(6), pages 1303-1344.
    3. Ron Boschma, 2015. "Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Resilience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 733-751, May.
    4. Gergő Tóth & Zoltán Elekes & Adam Whittle & Changjun Lee & Dieter F. Kogler, 2022. "Technology Network Structure Conditions the Economic Resilience of Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 98(4), pages 355-378, August.
    5. Jing Xiao & Ron Boschma & Martin Andersson, 2018. "Resilience in the European Union: the effect of the 2008 crisis on the ability of regions in Europe to develop new industrial specializations," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(1), pages 15-47.
    6. Luis Carvalho & Mario Vale, 2018. "Biotech by Bricolage? Agency, institutional relatedness and new path development in peripheral regions," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1801, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2018.
    7. Ron Boschma, 2018. "The geographical dimension of structural change," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1839, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2018.
    8. Ron Boschma & Koen Frenken, 2015. "Evolutionary Economic Geography," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1518, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2015.
    9. Quatraro, Francesco & Scandura, Alessandra, 2020. "Regional patterns of unrelated technological diversification: the role of academic inventors," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 202001, University of Turin.
    10. Teresa Farinha & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Andrea Morrison & Ron Boschma, 2019. "What drives the geography of jobs in the US? Unpacking relatedness," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(9), pages 988-1022, October.
    11. Roberto Ganau & Andres Rodriguez-Pose, 2023. "Firm-level productivity growth returns of social capital: Evidence from Western Europe," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2305, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Feb 2023.
    12. Danny Mackinnon & Stuart Dawley & Andy Pike & Andrew Cumbers, 2018. "Rethinking Path Creation: A Geographical Political Economy Approach," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1825, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jun 2018.
    13. Giuseppe Terzo, 2021. "Social capital, social economy and economic resilience of Italian provinces," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(5), pages 1113-1135, October.
    14. Ron Boschma, Lars Coenen, Koen Frenken, Bernhard Truffer & Lars Coenen & Koen Frenken & Bernhard Truffer, 2016. "Towards a theory of regional diversification," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1617, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2016.
    15. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    16. Joan Crespo, 2021. "Agencies, scales and times of path creation: The case of IoT in Toulouse," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 1527-1545, October.
    17. Adam Whittle, 2017. "Local and Non-Local Knowledge Typologies: Technological Complexity in the Irish Knowledge Space," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1728, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2017.
    18. Jeroen Content & Koen Frenken, 2016. "Related variety and economic development: a literature review," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(12), pages 2097-2112, December.
    19. İ. Semih Akçomak & Hanna Müller-Zick, 2018. "Trust and inventive activity in Europe: causal, spatial and nonlinear forces," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 60(3), pages 529-568, May.
    20. Mattie Landman & Sanna Ojanperä & Stephen Kinsella & Neave O’Clery, 2023. "The role of relatedness and strategic linkages between domestic and MNE sectors in regional branching and resilience," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 515-559, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact

    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:oup:indcch:v:30:y:2021:i:3:p:762-777.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    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.