Foreign direct investments in manufacturing by district firms: evidence from the Italian chair district

Abstract

Manufacturing internationalisation is a phenomenon that currently involves several industrial districts. While the literature on industrial districts is wide, few works analyse the (manufacturing) internationalisation dynamics. This study tries to fill this lack by analysing forms, motivation, obstacles and results of the foreign direct investments carried out in one of the most important Italian districts. The research shows how some of the district leading firms have recently combined local presence with a strategy of internationalisation that also involves manufacturing activities through foreign direct investments. The readers can comprehend the main features of the international manufacturing path that is involving one of the most important Italian industrial districts, i.e. the chair district. The research offers a contribution to an area rather neglected in literature – the district (manufacturing) internationalisation dynamics.

Keywords:

• international manufacturing
• local manufacturing systems
• district

Notes

Notes

1. Michael Porter (1998, p. 78) defines it as follows: ‘Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field. Clusters encompass an array of linked industries and other entities important to competition’. After all, Porter's model of localised cluster is universally generalisable, leaving space–time connotations out of consideration. The industrial districts are the European (and in particular the Italian) version of this model.

2. Promosedia is the association of local enterprises for the promotion of district trade and its commercial development.