THE INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS

The word “industrial district” is referred to areas, located in the same territory, characterised of a high concentration of industries, mainly small and medium enterprises, specialised in different phases of the same manufacturing process.

The Italian districts in the Integra Plus project

The Italian industrial districts are at the core of the activities of the Integra Plus project, since they represent a model of development that several developed countries are willing to reproduce. To do so, however, the managers need to know in detail the characteristics and peculiarities that turn the Italian districts into a system able to stimulate new business opportunities.

In order to allow the foreign managers from the 22 Countries of the Integra network to see from close the Italian industrial districts, the project includes a number of study tours organised to become acquainted with these important realities – from an economic and cultural point of view – through visits to enterprises, institutions, and to the territory.

How many Italian industrial districts are there, and where are they?

The industrial districts, as a model of integrated local development, were at the core of the national economic debate especially as a model able to conjugate productive flexibility and organisational coordination through the territory and as an important critical factor of success to start and re-launch social development policies. Several studies, researches and analysis were carried out on this subject. 

The definition of industrial district, in fact, does not lend itself to a standardised identification with quantitative indicators, and the same quantitative indicators are not easily operatively measurable; it is not easy, then, to univocally define the territorial borders of a district, and this is however necessary in order to measure its existence and size.

The Italian industrial districts autonomously developed during the last few decades, concentrating their activities on specific sectors in which they acquired and developed particularly relevant competitive advantages.

In order to better understand the reasons for their competitiveness, small enterprises should be considered not as single entities, but rather as parts of a whole, able to collaborate; the “relational network” developed (at a technical level) together with the competitive network (at a commercial level) and the strong socio-economic identity creates a balanced mix of potentials and stimulus, necessary to keep the district united and dynamic.