The Competitive Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy): Some Evidence from the Clothing and Textile Industry in San Giuseppe Vesuviano

The distinction between ‘the three Italies’– the northern industrial triangle, the underdeveloped Mezzogiorno and the industrial districts of the north east – was first made ten years ago. This distinction aimed to legitimize the existence of regional situations that had previously been ignored. After some years of investigating the southern economy, we need to revisit the analysis of ‘the second Italy’, since it has complex features requiring detailed study. Recent research has revealed the existence of partially underground local systems in the Italian Mezzogiorno, which are not captured by traditional statistical data and display different kinds of linkages. The clothing and textile industry in San Giuseppe Vesuviano is one example of a competitive local production system. Commercial and production enterprises, homeworkers and workshops make up this local fabric. This article focuses on certain aspects of this situation, which have developed spontaneously: regulation mechanisms of informal work, competition and cooperation within the system, the attraction of an immigrant labour force (the Chinese community), evolutionary trends, the low level of criminality and the role of institutions. La distinction établie entre ‘les trois Italie’ le triangle industriel du nord, le Mezzogiorno sous développé et les districts industriels du nord‐est – date d'une décennie. Elle visait à légitimer l'existence de situations régionales jusqu' alors ignorées. Après quelques années d'enquètes sur l'économie méridionale, il convient de revisiter l'analyse de ‘la deuxième Italie’, ses caractéristiques complexes nécessitant des précisions. De récentes recherches ont révélé l'existence, dans le Mezzogiorno italien, de systèmes locaux en partie souterrains, échappant aux statistiques traditionnelles et présentant différentes sortes de liens. Par exemple, l'industrie du textile et de l'habillement de San Giuseppe Vesuviano est l'un des systèmes de production locale compétitifs, où entreprises de fabrication et de commercialisation, travailleurs à domicile et ateliers constituent le tissu local. Cet article se consacre à certains aspects propres à ce cas qui s'est spontanément développé: mécanismes régulateurs du travail irrégulier, concurrence et coopération au sein du système, attraction d'une main‐d'?uvre d'immigrants (communauté chinoise), tendances prévisionnelles, faible niveau de criminalité et rôle des institutions.     

New Regionalism Reconsidered: Globalization and the Remaking of Political Economic Space

Amid the near frenzied exaltation of economic globalization and a purported decline of the nation state, a range of subnational regional economies and urban metropoles are increasingly being canonized as the paradigmatic exemplars of wealth creation. Indeed, across many of the advanced developed countries a whole host of academics, consultants, influential commentators, politicians and bourgeois interest groups are readily invoking the region to be the appropriate site for regulating global capitalism. In a recent article in IJURR, though, John Lovering disputes this emerging New Regionalism, viewing it to be seriously compromised by several practical and theoretical inadequacies. This article has two principal aims. First, and while sympathetic to the general tenor of Lovering’s critique, it offers a rejoinder through some sobering reflections on what might be recovered from the range of New Regionalist perspectives currently vying for attention within critical studies of regional development. Second, it presents a series of future theoretical directions for a geopolitically sensitive regional research agenda, drawing on recent thinking from the new regional geography, globalization and the politics of scale, institutional‐relational state theory and the regulation approach. An argument is made that a synthesis of these perspectives might intensify our understanding of the social and political construction of regions, the uneven geography of growth, and the moments of re‐scaled regionalized state power that now enframe the process of economic governance.     

Optimal installation of renewable electricity sources: the case of Italy

Decisions in Economics and Finance - Starting from the model in Koch and Vargiolu (SIAM J Control Optim 59(4): 3068–3095, 2021), we test the real impact of current renewable installed power...     

新区域主义视角下的京津冀都市圈治理结构研究

20世纪末期以来,新区域主义理论逐渐成为全球化背景下跨域合作治理研究的显学。新区域主义理论关注权力与资源的依赖关系、行动规则的构建与网络协作的达成,主张面向空间、功能和部门等纬度构建政府、企业、社会组织、公民个人等多元主体间的协调机制。从新区域主义的理论视角审视京津冀区域合作治理的现实可以看出,目前我国京津冀区域的治理模式仍处于构建阶段,面临着缺乏区域认同、协调方向单一、社会力量参与有限、合作机制不健全等问题,需要注重顶层设计,从国家首都地区战略的高度构建京津冀区域协同治理机制,打造决策——协调——执行相衔接的综合治理体系,并加强法制保障建设。     

Industrial districts and internationalization: the case of the agri-food industry in Modena,Italy

The paper explores the structural changes, in response to internationalization, in an important traditional activity (food chain, meat processing) in a typical ‘district area’. In the paper, attention is focused on the ‘Institutional structure of production’ (Coase, R. 1992 Coase, R. 1992. The institutional structure of production. American Economic Review, 82(4): 713–719. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the cluster is considered as a whole, as a complex economic player, capable of generating coherent action, regulated by institutional mechanisms, and founded on a set of ‘public assets’ which make up its ‘social capital’.

The paper is based on many empirical studies and surveys aimed at exploring the structure of SMEs and the role of the local institutions: the changes observed over time and in response to internationalization underline the reinforcement of the activity's cluster configuration.

These features emphasize the existence of a specific unit of analysis, indivisible from the individuals which constitute it. The discussion touches on the classical themes of the efficiency of the net-economy based on SMEs, and their prospects in a context of growing globalization.

The paper does not aim to enter into the debate on the origins and mechanism of innovation. However, the case study does illustrate the strength of the hypothesis of a unit of analysis different from the firm for discussion of a number of topics: some empirical examples of innovation, of significance for the economic consolidation of the ID, highlight the importance of district relationships in the production and spread of innovation.     

The possible adverse impact of innovation subsidies: some evidence from Italy

The impact of public funding on innovative productivity is estimated using a sample of Italian firm-level data (CIS3). A bivariate endogenous switching model is developed in order to free the analysis of the sources of sample selection and firm heterogeneity, the possible simultaneity between subsidy allocation and the qualitative composition of the innovative output, as well as the endogeneity of public support with respect to innovative performance. Results show that innovative productivity is negatively affected by the subsidy; as a result of government intervention, supported firms appear to exhaust their advantage through merely increasing their innovative expenditures.     

Organisational learning in contested environments: lessons from Brent Spar

The Post–Altman model of corporate greening, with its focus on organisational learning as a key component in overcoming organisational barriers to environmental changes, is reviewed in relation to Shell's attempted deep sea disposal of Brent Spar in 1995. It is argued here that environmental innovation requires not only organisational learning but a capacity to collaborate with outsiders. Shell's failure to appreciate different perceptions of its Brent Spar proposals, and to develop the alliances that would have been needed to explore alternatives, resulted in costly damage to both its reputation and its European sales. The decision was reversed, and substantial organisational change took place, but as a result of external pressure rather than internal learning. Shell's experience raises significant issues for corporate greening, and particularly for companies seeking to improve environmental performance in contested environments. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Political culture and foreign direct investment: The case of Italy

Does the political culture of an area have any impact on the foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions of multinational corporations (MNCs)? This question is difficult to address empirically, as locations differ in many dimensions. We therefore address this question by examining MNC investment location decisions with regard to different regions within a single country. The country we examine is Italy, which exhibits one of the highest levels of variation with regard to the political culture of its geographical regions. We find that political culture as represented by the pattern of support for political parties at different points on the political spectrum has a significant impact on the MNC investment location decision. Thus, in choosing between locations on a short list, where economic and financial location factors are roughly similar, political culture can have a determining influence. In the case of Italy, a Center-right orientation is conducive to MNC FDI, while a Center-left orientation is not. A Far-left orientation is found to have a very negative effect on FDI.     

On randomization, modeling and experimental design: some remarks on a paper by De Vos

De Vos (1991) claims to have discovered a new example from agricultural field experimentation which shows that a simple robust spatial model may lead to inference and systematic experimental design that outperforms the inference from randomized experiments by far. In this reaction it is shown that: (1) the example is not new; (2) the gains in efficiency are exaggerated due to comparison with an inefficient randomization method; (3) the paper is over-optimistic with respect to robustness of model-based methods and throws unjustified doubts on the validity of randomization methods; (4) the choice between randomization methods and model-based methods depends on the relative importance attached to efficiency and validity.     

Assessment of brownfield redevelopment opportunities using a multi-tiered approach: A case in Italy

The objectives and implementation of environmental remediation and regeneration of brownfield sites have evolved over the years. Today, the intertwining of environmental, economic, and social issues related to the reuse of these sites is more apparent than in previous years; thus, the interconnectedness of these issues is now more considered in the remediation and regeneration of brownfield sites. The implications of environmental remediation and regeneration activities have broadened, leading to different and often contrasting interests among the stakeholders involved in these activities. In this study, we analyzed the role of private and public stakeholders in the remediation and regeneration of a brownfield site in Porto Marghera, Italy (Venice). We also examined the influence of the brownfield's site-specific features on its own remediation and regeneration. By adopting a multi-tiered approach, including, first, a desktop analysis and, second, in-depth interviews and a multi-criteria decision analysis, we identified factors that, if present or improved, could enhance the attractiveness of the area to developers and foster the site's redevelopment.     

Disclosure of information: some evidence from case studies

The practice and problems of disclosure of information are of concern not only to those who are responsible for the conduct of industrial relations, but also to other specialists. Falconer Mitchell et alia, using case studies carried out in 1978 and 1979, discuss disclosure policy from the standpoints of both industrial relations and accountancy.     

Territorial amalgamation decisions in local government: Models and a case study from Italy

In the context of general welfare reforms in western economies, a recent trend has concerned the rationalization of administrative structures of local authorities, including a reduction in the number of administrative levels and units (through mergers and amalgamation processes) and the subsequent rearrangement of their boundaries. In this paper, we develop mathematical models to analyze amalgamation and redistricting policy decisions implemented in Italy. Results provided by such models can provide valuable support to stakeholders and policy makers.     

Training for strategic change: some conditions of effectiveness: a case in the banking sector in France

In this paper, a case in the banking sector in France is presented because this is particularly illustrative of some advanced training policies. Hence it enables several general conclusions to be drawn about their strategic effectiveness. One particular conclusion is that a training programme aimed at raising educational levels or basic skills which is not rapidly and completely articulated to professional programmes and actions about career paths is doomed to raise frustrations and miss, at least partially, its objectives. To consider training as a strategic HRM tool is thus not enough: indeed, there is a complex reality of training in practice.     

The importance of financial incentives on retirement choices: New evidence for Italy

This study exploits a new dataset to quantify the effect of financial incentives on retirement choices. This dataset contains—for the first time for Italy—information on seniority. The effects of marginal incentives and social security wealth (SSW) on retirement go in the expected direction; when employees become eligible for pension benefits, the change in financial incentives they experience is so great that their retirement probability increases by 30 percentage points.We also find that the procedure used in previous Italian studies to impute seniority leads to a considerable overestimation of that variable and of SSW. We show that, due to these measurement errors, the estimate of the SSW coefficient takes the wrong sign. A comparison of retirement studies across countries (see Gruber and Wise [Gruber, J., and Wise, D., (2004). Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World: Micro-Estimation, NBER. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.]) provides prima facie evidence that a lack of good quality data often leads to wrongly signed estimates of the SSW coefficient.