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

从经济角度来看，欧盟的扩大不仅仅意味着商业和政治一体化。它还意味着对可以追溯到20世纪70年代和80年代的现有生产网络和结构进行合并和重新运作。这项研究的重点是最近的一个网络和结构扩张的案例：将服装和纺织业从意大利的工业区外包到东欧，在东欧，意大利纺织和服装公司正明确试图在其新投资项目内和周围开发工业区。这项研究将对领先企业刺激以新生产设施为中心的产业网络的这些尝试进行比较分析。实地考察工作将在意大利投资者承诺参与这些更广泛的工业和地区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。研究人员将采访牵头公司、投入品供应商和购买公司的经理，以及参与这些领域明确的产业网络政策的地方政府官员。他还将对意大利北部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。采访将有三个核心领域进行调查：1)意大利企业家在东欧的地理位置。这一部分将调查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相遇的时刻。2)引导东欧样本区发展工业区的过程。这一部分分析了与产业区形成相关的条件，特别是制造商和买家认为集聚成功或失败的特征。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公司向海外转移是否在受援地引发了类似于意大利工业区的公司之间以及公司和机构之间的实践和关系的形成。这项工作的一个主要理论贡献将是将外包和产业区的文献联系起来。在东欧的一些地区，中小型企业网络正在形成。在几个案例中，地方政府希望通过明确的区域和产业政策来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，意大利公司最近一直在扩大对中欧和东欧关键地区的投资，在这样做的过程中，他们一直在要求当地企业和政府承诺支持他们认为对有效的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.