1. Introduction.
One of the most pervasive and disruptive effects of globalisation is international
fragmentation of production processes, i.e. the splitting of production processes over
production sites located in different countries as a cost-reducing strategy with respect to
an integrated technology (where all production segments take place within the same
location). Fragmentation allows producers to take advantage of differences in factor
prices among countries, thereby obtaining a reduction in costs by setting up an
international production network (Jones and Kierzkowski, 2000).
Many Italian industrial districts are deeply interested by this phenomenon, mainly
those in traditional manufacturing sectors (such as textiles, clothing, apparel, furniture,
leather and leather goods) where firms in industrialised countries have been facing
increasing competitive pressures from low labour-cost producers in emerging
economies. This paper will be focussed on footwear industrial districts. In the Italian
footwear sector the increasing globalisation of production is imposing major changes on
the organisation of production:
• on the one hand, evidence at a national level shows that increasing international
competition is spurring a massive fragmentation of production processes through
delocalisation of low value-added activities abroad (mainly towards Eastern
European countries) (ANCI, 2001, 2003);
• on the other hand, evidence from a previous study on one of the most important
footwear clusters - Riviera del Brenta - suggests that the overwhelming presence of
fashion firms and increasing concentration in distribution is limiting producers’
control on some crucial activities, i.e. design, branding, marketing and distribution
(Rabellotti, 2001).
Overall, these trends are reducing the range of activities carried out within the
districts. Consequently, as firms in industrial districts enter international production
networks, they are altering their traditional sources of competitiveness, which has
traditionally come from intra-cluster relationships.
This paper is concerned with the effect of globalisation of production on the
footwear sector in Italy. The aim is to investigate the emerging role of footwear districts
within international production networks. The following questions will be tackled:
which is the pattern of specialisation of footwear districts in Italy? Is there any common