The effect of globalisation on industrial districts in Italy: evidence from the footwear sector

provided by Research Papers in Economics

43rd European Congress of the Regional Science Association

University of Jyvaskyla
Jyvaskyla, Finland
27th-30th August 2003

The effects of globalisation on industrial districts in Italy:
Evidence from the footwear sector.

Alessia Amighini and Roberta Rabellotti

Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods
Università del Piemonte Orientale

Novara, Italy

amighini@eco.unipmn.it, rabellotti@eco.unipmn.it

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the effects of globalisation of production on the
footwear sector in Italy. The aim is to investigate the position of footwear districts as
actors in international fragmentation of production. The following questions will be
tackled: which is the pattern of specialisation of footwear districts in Italy? Is there any
common trend towards a reduction of activities carried out within the district? Or,
instead, are different patterns emerging for districts according to their segment of the
market and according to the value chains they belong to?

The paper will explore these issues by analysing the pattern of fragmentation of
production in the footwear sector at a provincia level, using data on outward processing
trade (OPT) collected by Associazione Nazionale Calzaturieri Italiani (ANCI).
Furthermore, the study will explore two selected cases based on previous findings of
field work by interviewing shoe manufacturing enterprises as well as fashion firms,
retailers and other key informants.

We find evidence of differences in international delocalisation strategies of selected
footwear districts and argue that these different patterns of specialisation are closely
related with clusters’ market position and linkages with the fashion industry. We
suggest that the diverse patterns of specialisation condition the potential for industrial
upgrading.

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