Does manufacturing come back? How industrial districts are facing the new globalization phase

Journal title ECONOMIA E SOCIETÀ REGIONALE
Author/s Marco Bettiol, Maria Chiarvesio, Eleonora Di Maria, Stefano Micelli
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/2 Language Italian
Pages 10 P. 55-64 File size 272 KB
DOI 10.3280/ES2017-002005
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Industrial districts considered as local manufacturing systems have stressed the advantages of innovation and competitiveness related to the control of manufacturing processes embedded in well-defined socio-economic contexts. The intense phase of globalization characterizing large firms in the last decades - with an intense process of re-location of production in low-cost countries - has impacted also on district firms and their production strategies, in terms of reorganization of local supply chains. The recent debate on backshoring has revamped the attention on the value of manufacturing and the opportunity of bringing back production in advanced countries. Our survey on more than 250 district firms and case studies located in Italian North Eastern regions highlight that backshoring is a limited phenomenon. On the contrary we observe that firms develops production strategies between local (to exploit innovation and district know-how) and global (economies of scales, high production volume).

Keywords: Backshoring, Manufacturing, Global Value Chains, Competitiveness, Districts

Jel codes: L23, M16, R11

  1. Bettiol M., Chiarvesio M., Di Maria E. and Micelli S. (2018). Manufacturing where are Thou? Value Chain Organization and Cluster Firms’ Strategies between Local and Global. In: De Marchi V., Di Maria E. and Gereffi G., eds. Local Clusters and Global Chains: Linking Actors and Territories Through Manufacturing And Innovation. Abingdon: Routledge.
  2. Bettiol M., Burlina C., Chiarvesio M. and Di Maria E. (2017). Industrial District Firms do not Smile: Structuring the Value Chain between local and Global. Advances in International Management, 30.
  3. Bettiol M. and Micelli S. (2014). The Hidden Side of Design: The Relevance of Artisanship. Design Issues, 30(1): 7-18,
  4. Camuffo A. and Grandinetti R. (2011). Entrepreneurship & Regional Development Italian Industrial Districts as Cognitive Systems: Are they still Re producible? Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 23(9-10): 37-41, DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2011.577815
  5. Chiarvesio M., Di Maria E. and Micelli S. (2010). Global Value Chains and Open Networks: the Case of Italian Industrial Districts. European Planning Studies, 18: 333-350, DOI: 10.1080/09654310903497637
  6. Cohen S.S and Zysman J. (1987). Manufacturing matters: the myth of the post-industrial economy. NY: Basic Books.
  7. De Marchi V. and Grandinetti R. (2014). Industrial Districts and the Collapse of the Marshallian Model: Looking at the Italian Experience. Competition & Change, 18(1): 70-87, DOI: 10.1179/1024529413Z.00000000049
  8. De Marchi V., Gereffi G. and Grandinetti R. (2018). Evolutionary Trajectories of Industrial Districts in Global Value Chains. In: De Marchi V., Di Maria E. and Gereffi G., eds. Local Clusters in Global Value Chains: Linking Actors and Territories Through Manufacturing and Innovation. Abingdon: Routledge. Ch. 3.
  9. Fratocchi L., Di Mauro C., Barbieri P., Nassimbeni G., and Zanoni A. (2014). When Manufacturing moves Back: Concepts and Questions. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 20(1): 54-59,
  10. Gereffi G., Humphrey J. and Sturgeon T. (2005). The Governance of Global Value Chains. Review of international political economy, 12(1): 78-104, DOI: 10.1080/09692290500049805
  11. Giansoldati M. and Pauluzzo R. (2011). The International Evolution of Italian and Chinese Districts: What Role for Lead Firms? Transition Studies Review, 18(2): 471-486,
  12. Bair J., ed. (2009). Frontiers of Commodity Chain Research. Berlin: Stanford University Press.
  13. Becattini G., Bellandi M. and De Propris L., eds. (2009). Handbook on Industrial Districts. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
  14. Bettiol M. (2015). Raccontare il Made in Italy. Un nuovo legame tra cultura e manifattura. Venezia: Marsilio.
  15. Grandinetti R. and Tabacco R. (2015). A Return to Spatial Proximity: Combining Global Suppliers with Local Subcontractors. International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 7(2): 139-159,
  16. Guelpa F. e Micelli S., a cura di (2007). I distretti industriali del terzo millennio. Dalle economie di agglomerazione alle strategie di impresa. Bologna: il Mulino.
  17. Mudambi R. (2007). Offshoring: Economic Geography and the Multinational Firm. Journal of International Business Studies, 38(1): 206.
  18. Pisano G.P. and Shih W.C. (2012). Does Really America Need Manufacturing. Harvard Business Review, 90(3): 94-102.
  19. Schmitz H. and Knorringa P. (2000). Learning from Global Buyers. Journal of Development Studies, 2: 177-205, DOI: 10.1080/713600073

Marco Bettiol, Maria Chiarvesio, Eleonora Di Maria, Stefano Micelli, La manifattura torna indietro? Come i distretti industriali stanno affrontando la nuova fase della globalizzazione in "ECONOMIA E SOCIETÀ REGIONALE " 2/2017, pp 55-64, DOI: 10.3280/ES2017-002005