Industrial districts in a globalizing world: A model to change or a model of change? - Materiali di discussione del Dipartimento di Economia Politica (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia), n. 615

Industrial districts – and especially industrial districts in Italy – have been much studied and debated, and are seen by some as a model of economic development to be emulated, and by others as a model that has already had its day. All agree, however, that those districts today are in transformation, that globalization has put them “on the move.” This article uses a study of the Modenese mechanical district – an archetypical industrial district – to examine this “movement.” It analyzes changes in the district, including especially the rise to prominence in the district of relatively small multinational firms, and shows that this rise has not severed these firms’ ties to the territory but has rather reconfigured relations in ways that have led those firms also to the need for new regional institutions and organizations consistent with a district structure “on the move”. In particular, the article uses a case study of a private company created to broker collaborative technology transfer among its owner-members as a means to understand what sorts of institutions might be required and, in so doing, draws policy conclusions for regional economic development policy.