Published in 2000, the theoretical aim of the book is to explain the dynamic mechanism of the growth of Italian "industrial districts" shifting attention from "Marshallian industrial districts", where focus is not just on the decentralization of production among small-batch firms.
Pulished in 2000, a selection of contributions presented in 1998 at the conference of Udine entitled, "The Development of Industrial Districts in Italy". The theoretical aim of the book is to explain the dynamic mechanism of the growth of Italian "industrial districts" shifting attention from "Marshallian industrial districts", where focus is not just on the decentralization of production among small-batch firms. Determinant factors explaining growth seem related to the ways in which firms explore the markets, learn tacit knowledge, network with subcontractors and make incremental innovations. In substance, the work offers a cognitive approach to the issue of industrial districts.
Part 1: Innovation and Learning
1. Models of localised technological
change, Fiorenza Belussi and Giorgio Gottardi
2. Innovation and the creation
of knowledge in Italian Industrial Districts: A System Model, Giorgio
Gottardi
3. The Cognitive Approach to the Study of Local Production Systems,
Mauro Lombardi Part 2: Knowledge as a Resource and its Implications for
Policy
4. Endogenous development of local systems and SMEs: Lessons from
Practical Experience, Silvano Bertini
5. Policies for the Development of
Knowledge-Invested Local Production Systems, Fiorenza Belussi
6. Multimedia
Technology: An Organisational Challenge for Small Firms in Industrial
Districts, Christian Gethon and Fabio Arcangeli Part 3: The Dynamics of Local
Industrial Systems: Empirical Evidence
7. Evolutionary and Adaptive Local
Systems in Northeast Italy: Strategies of Learning, Leadership and
Co-Operation, Luciano Pilotti
8. The Socialisation of competencies in the
Development of Human Resources in Small Enterprise Districts, Paolo Calza
Bini and M. Caermela Bosco
9. The Evolution of the Chair-Manufacturing
Industry in Friuli-Venezia Guialia, Monica Tamisari.
Fiorenza Belussi is Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Organization at the University of Padua, Italy.