Italian manufacturing steadily ranks seventh in the world for value added, fourth for production diversification and second for export competitiveness, and has a higher investment rate than its main European competitors, including Germany. However, it is also characterized by a long-lasting weak...

The scope of this paper is to propose a novel approach to the categorization of manufacturing development, aimed at accounting for the major global transformations that have occurred in the organisation of industrial activity in the last decades. It first addresses the way manufacturing...

The paper provides a measure of the performance differentials among Italian manufacturing firms, viewed in the light of the marked changes brought about by globalisation and the more recent economic crisis. On the basis of an original data- set it is shown that the profitability registered by...