The Emilian Model Revisited: Twenty Years After

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Notes

S. Brusco, ‘The Emilian Model: Productive Decentralisation and Social Integration’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol.VI (1982), pp.167–84.

M.J. Piore and C.F. Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide (New York, 1984); F. Pyke, G. Becattini and W. Sengenberger (eds), Industrial Firms and Inter-Firm Cooperation in Italy (Geneva, 1990); A. Amin (ed.), Post-Fordism: A Reader (Oxford, 1994); F. Cossentino, F. Pyke and W. Sengenberger (eds), Local and Regional Response to Global Pressure: The Case of Italy and its Industrial Districts (Geneva, 1996); P. Cooke and K. Morgan, The Associational Economy: Firms, Regions and Innovation (Oxford, 1998).

C. Trigilia, Grandi partiti e piccole imprese (Bologna, 1986); A. Bagnasco, La costruzione sociale del mercato (Bologna, 1988); R.D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ, 1993); V. Capecchi and A. Pesce, ‘L'Émilie Romagne’, in V. Scardigli (ed.), L'Europe de la diversité (Paris, 1993), pp.89–123; A. Amin, ‘The Emilian Model: Institutional Challenges’, European Planning Studies, Vol.VII (1999), pp.394–5.

V. Capecchi, ‘A History of Flexible Specialisation and Industrial Districts in Emilia-Romagna’, in Pyke et al. (eds.), Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Cooperation in Italy, p.28.

N. Bellini, ‘The Management of Economy in Emilia-Romagna: The PCI and the Regional Experience’, in R. Leonardi and R.Y. Nanetti (eds.), The Regions and European Integration. The Case of Emilia-Romagna (London, 1990), pp.109–10.

The provision of real services involved offering companies the services they needed, rather than financial incentives, to prompt innovation. Typically such services concerned corporate strategy; organisational development and management; financial and administrative systems; production and service management; research activities; management of human resources; information technology and systems; marketing and corporate communications. For a detailed analysis of the real service policy in Emilia-Romagna, see S. Brusco and E. Righi, ‘Local Government, Industrial Policy and Social Consensus: The Case of Modena (Italy)’, Economy and Society, Vol.XVIII (1989), pp.414–19; N. Bellini, M.G. Giordani and F. Pasquini, ‘The Industrial Policy of Emilia-Romagna: The Business Service Centres’, in Leonardi and Nanetti (eds), The Regions and European Integration, pp.171–85; S. Brusco, ‘Small Firms and the Provision of Real Services’, in F. Pyke and W. Sengenberger (eds), Industrial Districts and Local Economic Regeneration (Geneva, 1992), pp.177–96; N. Bellini and F. Pasquini, ‘The Case of Ervet in Emilia-Romagna: Towards a Second-Generation Regional Development Agency’, in H. Halkier, M. Danson and C. Damborg (eds), Regional Development Agencies in Europe (London and Philadelphia, 1998), pp.253–70.

M. Best, The New Competition (Cambridge, 1990), pp.205–11.

Unione Regionale delle Camere di Commercio dell'Emilia-Romagna, L'economia regionale nel 1999 (Bologna, 2000), pp.1–5.

Ibid., p.95.

P. Bianchi and G. Gualtieri, ‘Emilia-Romagna and its Industrial Districts: The Evolution of a Model’, in Leonardi and Nanetti (eds), The Regions and European Integration, pp.83–108; G. Lorenzoni (ed.), Le acquisizioni in Emilia-Romagna (Milan, 1994); Idse-Cnr, ‘Struttura e localizzazione dei gruppi di imprese in Emilia-Romagna’, in G. Lorenzoni (ed.), Trasformazioni strutturali e competitività dei sistemi locali di produzione. Rapporto sul cambiamento strutturale dell'economia italiana (Milan, 1999), pp.241–83.

B. Harrison, Lean and Mean: The Changing Landscape of Corporate Power in the Age of Flexibility (New York, 1994), pp.75–105.

S. Brusco et al., ‘The Evolution of Industrial Districts in Emilia-Romagna’, in Cossentino et al. (eds), Local and Regional Response to Global Pressure, p.33; L. Biggiero, ‘The Impact of Entries of Transnational Corporations in Regional Innovation Systems’, ESRI Thematic Research Workshop (Copenhagen, 1999).

M. Bellandi, ‘The Incentives to Decentralised Industrial Creativity in Local Systems of Small Firms’, Revue d'Economie Industrielle, Vol.XVI (1992), pp.99–110; G. Dei Ottati, ‘Cooperation and Competition in the Industrial Districts as an Organisational Model’, European Planning Studies, Vol.II (1994), pp.463–83; J. Whitford, ‘The Decline of a Model? Challenge and Response in the Italian Industrial Districts’, Economy and Society, Vol.XXX (2001), p.47.

M.E. Porter, ‘Clusters and the New Economics of Competition’, Harvard Business Review, Vol.LXXVI (1998), p.87.

M.H. Lazerson and G. Lorenzoni, ‘The Firms that Feed Industrial Districts: A Return to the Italian Source’, Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol.VIII (1999), p.237.

Unione Regionale delle Camere di Commercio dell'Emilia-Romagna, Il processo di globalizzazione in Emilia-Romagna (Bologna, 1997).

P. Cooke and K. Morgan, ‘Emilia-Romagna: From Civic Culture to Global Networks’, in idem, The Associational Economy, pp.114–33.

Amin, ‘The Emilian Model: Institutional Challenges’, p.397.

C.F. Sabel, ‘Learning by Monitoring: The Institutions of Economic Development’, in N. Smelser and R. Swedberg (eds.), Handbook of Economic Sociology (Princeton, NJ, 1994), pp.137–65.

F. Pyke and W. Sengenberger, ‘Introduction’, in Cossentino et al. (eds.), Local and Regional Response to Global Pressure, p.8.

Brusco et al., ‘The Evolution of Industrial Districts in Emilia-Romagna’, p.31.

M.H. Lazerson, ‘A New Phoenix? Modern Putting-out in the Modena Knitwear Industry’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol.XL (1995), pp.34–59; Lazerson and Lorenzoni, ‘The Firms that Feed Industrial Districts’, pp.245–6.

P. Mengoli and M. Russo, ‘Skills, Innovation and Local Development’, Working Paper 297, Dipartimento di Economia Politica (Modena, 2000), pp.6–9.

Brusco et al., ‘The Evolution of Industrial Districts in Emilia-Romagna’, Table 3.

G. Utili, Trasformazioni e sviluppo dell'industria italiana delle piastrelle di ceramica (Sassuolo, 1983); Assopiastrelle, 21 ^a Indagine statistica nazionale. Industria italiana delle piastrelle di ceramica. Anno 2000 (Sassuolo, 2001).

M. Russo et al., ‘Local Sustainability and Competitiveness: The Case of the Ceramic Tile Industry’, Working Paper 134, Dipartimento di Economia Politica (Modena, 1996), Table 2; Assopiastrelle, 21 ^a Indagine statistica nazionale, Table 1.

Russo et al., ‘Local sustainability and competitiveness’, Table 2.

M. Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations: With a New Introduction (Basingstoke and London, 1998), pp.221–2.

V. Capecchi, ‘In Search of Flexibility: The Bologna Metalworking Industry, 1900–1992’, in C.F. Sabel and J. Zeitlin (eds.), World of Possibilities: Flexibility and Mass Production in Western Industrialization (Cambridge, 1997), pp.405–12; Lazerson and Lorenzoni, ‘The Firms that Feed Industrial Districts’, p.242.

L. Biggiero and A. Sammarra, ‘The Biomedical Valley: Structural, Relational and Cognitive Aspects’, paper presented at Sistemi, governance & conoscenza nelle reti d'impresa, Università degli Studi di Padova, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, 17–18 May 2001, pp.4–5.

R&I srl – Osservatorio sul settore biomedicale nel distretto mirandolese, Seconda rilevazione (Mirandola, 2001).

M. Russo and E. Pirani, Metalnet. Struttura e dinamica dei cambiamenti nelle relazioni tra le imprese metalmeccaniche in provincia di Modena. Primi risultati dell'indagine empirica (Modena, 2001), pp.20–21.

D. Bigarelli and P. Crestanello, ‘Strategie di diversificazione e di riorganizzazione produttiva a Carpi negli anni Ottanta’, in M. Bellandi and M. Russo (eds), Distretti industriali e cambiamento economico locale (Turin, 1994), pp.187–8.

D. Bigarelli and P. Crestanello, ‘Il distretto di Carpi’, in S. Brusco et al. (eds), ‘Il settore tessile abbigliamento. Un confronto fra sistemi produttivi: Carpi, Thiene, Benetton, Leicester. Ricerca svolta nell'ambito del progetto Comett-Cee’, mimeo, Feb. 1991, p.13; Osservatorio regionale del settore tessile abbigliamento, Il distretto di Carpi nel periodo 1988–1990. 1° rapporto (Carpi, 1993), p.10.

M.H. Lazerson, ‘Subcontracting in the Modena Knitwear Industry’, in Pyke et al. (eds), Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Cooperation in Italy, p.120.

Bigarelli and Crestanello, ‘Strategie di diversificazione e di riorganizzazione produttiva a Carpi negli anni Ottanta’, p.189.

S. Brusco and D. Bigarelli, ‘Regional Prodcutive Systems in the Knitwear and Clothing Sectors in Italy: Industrial Structure and Training Needs’, ESRC Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, Working Paper No.51, March 1997, p.25.

Osservatorio del settore tessile abbigliamento nel distretto di Carpi, Terzo rapporto (Carpi, 1996), pp.13–15.

R&I srl – Osservatorio del settore tessile abbigliamento nel distretto di Carpi, Sesto rapporto (Carpi, 2002), pp.13–14.

Regione Emilia-Romagna, Crescita, qualità e innovazione delle imprese e del lavoro in Emilia-Romagna. Programma regionale triennale per lo sviluppo delle attività produttive. 1999–2001 (Bologna, 1999), pp.31–2.

Brusco et al., ‘The Evolution of Industrial Districts in Emilia-Romagna’, p.32; F. Belussi, ‘Path-Dependency vs. Industrial Dynamics: An Analysis of Two Heterogeneous Districts’, Human Systems Management, Vol.XVIII (1999), pp.161–74.

These data were provided by Maurizio Degli Esposti, the official responsible for the party's organisation within the DS's Regional Federation in Emilia-Romagna.

P. Bonora, Costellazione Emilia: territorialità e rischi della maturità (Turin, 1999), p.9.

Bellini, ‘The Management of Economy in Emilia-Romagna’, p.120.

S. Brusco and M. Pezzini, ‘Small-Scale Enterprises in the Ideology of the Italian Left’, in Pyke, Becattini and Sengenberger (eds), Industrial District and Inter-Firm Cooperation in Italy, pp.142–59.

Bellini, ‘The Management of Economy in Emilia-Romagna’, p.120.

Amin, ‘The Emilian Model: Institutional Challenges’, pp.399–400.

This was the case of SVEX, whose services openly overlapped well-consolidated export-promotion activities of the chambers of commerce, RESFOR (the centre for subcontracting), CETAS (the centre for the training of less developed countries' technicians), and SPOT (the centre for the promotion of metalworking industry) that failed to meet their goals. See Bellini and Pasquini, ‘The Case of Ervet in Emilia-Romagna’, p.266.

P. Cooke and K. Morgan, ‘Growth Regions under Duress: Renewal Strategies in Baden-Württemberg and Emilia-Romagna’, in A. Amin and N. Thrift (eds), Globalisation, Institutions, and Regional Development in Europe (New York, 1994), pp.112–13.

N. Bellini, ‘Regional Economic Policies and the Non-Linearity of History’, European Planning Studies, Vol.IV (1996), p.68; D. Mazzonis and R. Ennals, ‘The Emilia-Romagna Model of Development Coalitions’, Concepts and Transformation, Vol.IV (1999), pp.64–5.

Brusco, ‘Small Firms and the Provision of Real Services’, pp.187–8.

The only relevant exception is measure 1.2-action C, which supports projects for company networks, understood as aggregations between small and medium-sized firms set up with the purpose of co-makership or as supplier networks. The projects provide for the achievement of such objectives as the pursuit of the best productive capacities, the realisation of common service activities and the upgrading of the network.

Regione Emilia-Romagna, Crescita, qualità e innovazione delle imprese e del lavoro in Emilia-Romagna, p.47.

G. Solinas, ‘La certificazione come strumento per la politica industriale. L'esperienza dell'Emilia-Romagna’, Working Paper 399, Dipartimento di Economia Politica (Modena, 2002).

Regione Emilia-Romagna, Progetto di Legge Regionale. Promozione del Sistema Regionale delle Attività di Ricerca Industriale, Innovazione e Trasferimento Tecnologico. Relazione di accompagnamento (Bologna, 2002), pp.14–15.