4. Conclusions
This paper studied the impact of global transformations on some industrial districts
in the Italian footwear sector. This was done by analysing the pattern of international
delocalisation of production in relation with their positions in global value chains. Data
on OPT were used to address the following questions: 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 segments of the market and according to the
value chains they belong to? Furthermore, previous evidence on two selected case
studies was used to address the following questions: is globalisation pushing footwear
districts into new value chains? What types of governance characterise the relationships
between local and outside actors? Do the chains’ leaders come from inside or outside
the districts? Does the integration of industrial clusters in global value chains enhance
or weaken local upgrading strategies? This section presents the main conclusions.
We find evidence of differences in delocalisation strategies by clusters depending on
their market position. In particular, clusters of firms which have been traditionally
producing higher quality goods are intensifying their linkages with lead fashion firms.
As the latter are governing the value chain, a quasi-hierarchy may be a relevant form of
governance in linkages existing between producers and the lead fashion firms. To be
part of this chain, Brenta's shoe producers accept a functional 'downgrading' by
abandoning design and sales, which are the key competencies of the leaders of the
chain, and focusing on production. Their relationships with top brand companies can be
defined as somewhere in between network and quasi-hierarchy, but it is clear that the
leaders of the chain are not located in Brenta. This story draws attention to at least two
new insights, i.e. not only upgrading but also downgrading can occur within global
value chains and this may happen even to leading producers of developed countries.
These firms, which have given up their design function and have become
subcontractors, perform better than the other local producers in terms of sales and
profits as well as process and product upgrading. It appears that the luxury brand
companies share some of their high rents with their skilful subcontractors.
In Brenta most of the shoe enterprises feed into a variety of chains. If we exclude
from our sample firms producing more than 50 per cent of their production as
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