Brioschi F., Brioschi M. S. and Cainelli G. (2002) From the industrial district to the district group: an insight into the evolution of local capitalism in Italy, Reg. Studies 36, 1037-1053. The aim of this paper is two-fold: to analyse the extent of corporate grouping in the main industrial districts of Emilia Romagna and the reasons for their formation and development; and to show how their evolution in recent years requires rethinking the very concept of industrial district in favour of a unit of analysis capable of grasping the role taken by ownership linkages among firms. In this respect, we suggest a taxonomy of business groups that brings out the key role played by 'district groups'. The choice of Emilia Romagna as our field of investigation is motivated by the fact that in a number of ways the region's industrial system represents a paradigmatic model of local capitalism, combining the large-scale presence of industrial districts with a marked entrepreneurial spirit, strong social cohesion and an exceptionally efficient system of local institutions and intermediate organizations. In this sense, even though we start from the empirical study of a case (albeit a significant one like that of Emilia Romagna), our paper has the more general purpose of depicting the forms and ways through which a special form of local capitalism characterized by the massive presence of industrial districts has evolved, while at the same time signalling the need to reconsider the theoretical concepts and methods of empirical inquiry used to analyse and interpret the new forms taken on by local capitalism in Italy.Industrial districts, Business groups, District group, Emilia Romagna, Local capitalism,

No abstract

This paper analyses a number of European regions which, in the last two decades, have exhibited a significant shift towards knowledge-intensive industrial sectors coupled with a considerable increase in competitiveness and growth. The analysis identifies the main factors of territorial development behind each regional renewal process and captures a number of common trajectories of regional competitiveness. Interestingly, all the regional ‘success stories' are strongly dependent on the presence of a tri-polar regional innovation system that glues together firms, government institutions and academia.

- In this paper we analyse the innovative capacity of the most productive and most industrialised Italian regions by comparing them with a set of European regions that in the past two decades followed an industrial restructuring path towards knowledgebased sectors, doing so via the formation of a Regional Innovation System. Even though the European benchmarking regions now specialise in high-tech sectors and are characterised by high innovative activity, they share an industrial past based on heavy and traditional industries. In this respect, the two groups of regions are not so different in nature, and comparing them yields strategic insights for the Italian regional transformation process and suggests interesting local policy implications.Keywords: Knowledge economies, regional development, regional innovation systems.Parole chiave: economie della conoscenza, sviluppo regionale, sistemi regionali d'innovazioneJEL classification: R11, R58.

No abstract