Doctoral Dissertation Research: Analysis of the Relationship Between the Processes of Outsourcing of Italian Textile and Clothing Firms and the Emergence of Industrial Districts i

从经济角度看，欧盟的扩大不仅仅意味着商业和政治一体化。它还意味着对可追溯到1970年代和1980年代的现有生产网络和结构进行合并和改造。本研究的重点是这种网络和结构的扩展的一个较新的情况下：外包的服装和纺织工业从工业区在意大利到东欧，在那里意大利的纺织和服装公司明确地试图发展工业区及其周围的新投资。本研究将对主导企业为刺激以新生产设施为中心的工业网络所作的这些尝试进行比较分析。实地考察将在意大利投资者致力于这些更广泛的工业和区域项目的关键地点进行。初步研究已经确定了这四个投资对当地经济产生重大影响的案例：保加利亚、罗马尼亚、波兰和乌克兰西部。研究者将采访主导企业、投入品供应商和采购企业的管理人员，以及参与这些领域明确的产业网络政策的地方政府官员。他还将对北方意大利的纺织和服装公司进行采访，这些公司正在向这些案例研究地区外包和投资。面试将有三个主要调查领域：1）意大利企业家在东欧的地理位置。本节将探讨将企业转移到国外的决策过程和社会方面。将特别关注意大利企业家与当地合作伙伴和工人之间的相遇时刻。2)东欧样本地区的工业区发展过程。本节分析了与产业区形成相关的条件，特别是制造商和购买者认为与集聚成功或失败有关的特征。3)影响东欧新兴工业区的社会和经济进程与从意大利外包生产的做法之间的关系。这一部分试图了解意大利企业迁往国外是否会在接受地区引发企业之间以及企业与机构之间形成类似于意大利工业区的做法和关系。这项工作的一个主要理论贡献将是连接外包和工业区的文献。在东欧的一些地区，中小型企业网络正在出现。在一些情况下，地方政府希望通过明确的区域和产业政策深化这些网络和地区，以维持经济增长和发展。在这样做的过程中，这些州和地区政府机构明确地模仿了20世纪70年代和80年代意大利的“工业区”。与此同时，意大利企业最近扩大了对中欧和东欧关键地区的投资，并在此过程中要求当地企业和政府承诺支持他们认为对有效工业战略至关重要的后向和前向联系。 该项目将调查和评估这种情况发生的方式及其对工业和区域发展的影响。

From an economic perspective, the enlargement of the European Union means much more than commercial and political integration. It also means a merger and re-working of pre-existing production networks and structures that date back to the 1970s and 1980s. This research focuses on a more recent case of such expansion of networks and structures: the outsourcing of clothing and textile industries from industrial districts in Italy to Eastern Europe, where Italian textile and clothing firms are explicitly attempting to develop industrial districts in and around their new investments. The research will perform comparative analyses of these attempts by lead-firms to stimulate industrial networks centered on new production facilities. The fieldwork will be conducted on key sites where Italian investors have committed to these broader industrial and regional programs. Preliminary research has already identified these four cases where investments have had substantial impacts on local economies: in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Western Ukraine. The researcher will interview managers in lead-firms, input suppliers, and buying firms, as well as local government officials involved in the explicit industrial networks policies in each of those areas. He will also carry out interviews of textile and clothing firms in Northern Italy who are outsourcing to and investing in these case study regions. The interviews will have three central areas of investigation: 1) The geographies of Italian entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe. This section will investigate the decision-making processes and the social aspects of moving businesses abroad. Particular attention will be devoted to the moment of encounter between Italian entrepreneurs and the local partners and workers. 2) The processes leading sample areas in Eastern Europe to the development of industrial districts. This section analyzes the conditions associated with the formation of industrial districts, and specifically the characteristics that manufacturers and buyers identify with agglomeration success or failure. 3) The relations between social and economic processes affecting emerging industrial districts in Eastern Europe and the practices of outsourcing of production from Italy. This part seeks to understand whether Italian firms moving abroad are igniting in the recipient areas the formation of practices and relationships among firms, and between firms and institutions similar to the industrial districts in Italy. A major theoretical contribution of this work will be to bridge the literatures on outsourcing and industrial districts. In some areas of Eastern Europe networks of small and medium enterprises are emerging. In several cases, local governments are hoping to deepen those networks and districts through explicit regional and industrial policies to sustain economic growth and development. In so doing, these state and regional government agencies are explicitly modelling their efforts on Italian 'industrial districts' in the 1970s and 1980s. Concomitantly, Italian firms have recently been extending their investments in key places in Central and Eastern Europe, and in doing so they have been exacting commitments from local businesses and governments to supporting the backward and forward linkages they see as essential to effective industrial strategy. This project will investigate and assess the ways in which this is happening and the consequences for industrial and regional development.