This paper focuses on the functional specialisation of a system of cities, with particular attention to the role and the formation process of secondary business centers. At the european level, the latters can be identified in the large number of regional capitals, and properly defined as cities...

This work seeks to recall recent space logics of three industrial models (within the meaning of R. Boyer and M. Freyssenet): pharmacy, automotive and aeronautics. Using the Economics of Proximities approach, we sustain that the “viable profitability” of the firms depends on their faculty to...

During the past decade of declining FDI barriers, small domestic firms disproportionately contracted while large multinational firms experienced a substantial growth in Japan’s manufacturing sector. This paper quantitatively assesses the impact of FDI globalization on intra-industry...

In the recent years, the qualitative evolution of relocations (from low cost offshoring to more technological intensive relocations) became a new concern in the political debate. Focusing these new trends, the aim of this paper is to better understand relocations from the firms’ point of view...

Development zones, born in the course of China’s economic transition, are the carriers of both the favorable institutions and the foreign advanced technology. They are now at the stage of transferring from the concentration of firms to being industrial clusters. Based on data of firms in...

RESUMENEste artículo busca mostrar, a travésde una revisión bibliográfica analítica,la pertinencia de la hipótesis queplantea la multilocalización como unade las mejores estrategias empresarialespara competir globalmente,específicamente, cuando las empresastienen ventajas competitivas y...

The objective of this article is to investigate the dynamics of relocations at the micro-economic level. By proposing a grid of “dynamics of proximities”, we focus on the coordination issues which seem to be missing from most of analyses carried about relocations. We apply our framework to...

We document and then develop a model explaining and relating changes in firms'' organisation and in urban structure. Sharing of business services by headquarters and of sector-specific intermediates by production plants within a city reduces costs, while congestion increases with city size. A...

The paper uses a unique dataset to address the issue of the functional and competitive upgrading of firms located in Italian industrial districts as a way to counter the growing competition faced by the suppliers of intermediate goods in global value chains (GVC). To maintain or enhance...

The gaps in the export performance between Italian industry and its main competitors have (re)focused attention on the concept of "bazaar economy". In the specific case of Italy, the hypothesis of an economic model such as that of the bazaar economy would translate into significant impacts in...