ABSTRACT
Industrial districts (Becattini, et al. 2003; Belussi, Gottardi and Rullani 2003) in the Third Italy, which has been the paradigmatic example of localized learning and endogenous growth, used to be characterized by the whole value chain (Porter 2000) being carried out locally in the districts. This is no longer the normal case, as specific phases of the value chain, typically the most labour intensive and/or the most polluting phases, are increasingly being located outside the districts in previous East European countries and/or countries in the Third World, as a result of an industrial restructuring caused by increased global competition as well as stricter environmental regulations (Belussi and Macdonald 2003; Belussi, Gottardi and Rullani 2001; Rullani 2002). This results in a transformation of the industrial structure in the districts as well as a territorial fragmentation (Bonomi 1997) of the previous local value chain (Sammarra 2003). The outsourcing goes either to locally owned and existing factories in the Eastern and Southern European countries, or to subsidiaries of the outsourcing firms or to both. Many empirical works have documented the strategies of delocalization of Italian districtual firms (Carminucci and Casucci 1997; Cavalieri 1995; Scarso 1996; Corò and Grandinetti 1999a and 1999b; Caroli and Lipparini 2002; Belussi 2003a).
