The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of technology and spatial agglomeration in decisions about vertical integration. It starts from the hypotheses that the business group, defined as a set of firms under common ownership and control, is the appropriate unit to delimit the firm’s...

Previous research demonstrates that entrepreneurial processes underpin the growth of business groups. A business group is a set of companies controlled by the same entrepreneur. Case studies of portfolio entrepreneurs suggest that one of the main reasons for business group formation is the need...

Recent empirical research has demonstrated that the growth process of entrepreneurial firms is frequently achieved through the formation of business groups: i.e. a set of companies run by the same entrepreneur (or entrepreneurial team). This has been hypothesised as result of a growth process by...

Vertical integration, i.e. the control of activities along the production chain, is a fundamental issue for understanding firms’ strategic choices and production organization. In this paper we analyze the determinants of vertical integration in Italian manufacturing firms testing some...

This paper is a first attempt to analyse the relationship between spatial agglomeration and firms’ organizational structures. It takes advantage of a large data set on Italian business groups that allowed us to analyse the differences in the presence and characteristics of business groups...

Cainelli G., Iacobucci D. and Morganti E. (2006) Spatial agglomeration and business groups: new evidence from Italian industrial districts, Regional Studies 40, 507-518. This paper is a first attempt to analyse the relationship between spatial agglomeration and firms' organizational structures....

According to the last GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) surveys, Italy has one of the lowest rates of entrepreneurial activity among innovation driven countries. Moreover, Italy is characterized by large territorial differences in the entrepreneurial rates. The main aims of this paper are to...

The technical (plant) and legal (company) units normally used in official statistics do not take into consideration the phenomenon of business groups: i.e. sets of companies controlled by the same entrepreneur. The main aims of this paper are to assess the presence of such groups in the Italian...