[eng] Abstract The management of family companies has for long been assimilated to inefficient and malthusian conservatism. The example of the Elbeuvian wool firm Blin et Blin, kept under the control of the same family since its foundation in 1827 until the suspension of its activity in 1975,...

During the 70?s, the outstanding achievement of the ?Third Italy? led to the rehabilitation of the Marshallian concept of industrial district and to a growing number of studies on the productive system whose development can be mostly explained by the geographical concentration of activities. At...