This article presents an agent-based model (ABM) of an Italian textile district where thousands of small firms specialize in particular phases of fabrics production. It is an empirical model because it reconstructs the communications between firms when they arrange production chains. In their...

The idea that industry is not an adequate research unit in the analysis of development pol-icy is well known. It was present in the tradition of regional economists working on the con-cept of industrial complex, in Perroux’ theory of the pole of development, in Damhen’s defi-nition of...

The present contribution focuses on two issues. The first one concerns the characteristics of industrial districts and the increasing weight of these districts in the Italian system of production. The second issue is about the competitiveness of the Italian industrial districts, if they...

This paper investigates the development pattern of the urban area of Thriasio Pedio in the metropolitan region of Attica, which is characterised by a high concentration of industrial activities. The local-endogenous development model is discussed in the theoretical review of the paper, in the...

Between 1981 and 2001 Italy became a services-oriented economy. The loss of jobs in manufacturing was less pronounced in Italy’s organized industrial districts than in the rest of the country. The branches of manufacturing that typify the districts outperformed the others in terms of...

The paper focuses on internationalization strategies to be adopted by industrial district firms facing the deep change related to the world wide market opening process. Critical factors and threats are pointed out, in order to identify developing strategies that can enforce a co-ordination role...

Integrated logistics inside industrial districts, in spite of its potential, still faces infrastructural and cultural barriers. The article analyses fourteen cases of logistic innovation within industrial district firms, highlighting both the current status and intervention areas for building up...

This issue of the journal Sinergie collects papers presented at the conference held in Urbino in April 2005 on "The internationalization of small business and industrial districts", organized by the Faculty of Economics, Urbino University. The initiative was an opportunity to reflect on a theme,...

The principal aim of this paper was to examine the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in regard to the entry mode selection process. To successfully accomplish this, a resource-based view model was used to investigate the primary factors influencing a SMEs’...

The work analyzes the productive districts in Sicily, which is a lagging region in terms of development, and it suggests several proposals to make the working of these districts more effective for the competitiveness and the development of the regional economy. The analysis points out the need...