Published: 2008-02-15
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
The aim of this early stage study is to put forward some further reflections on the debate on the evolution of the district model through an assessment of post-2000 developments. The paper is focused; in particular; on the consequences of internationalization processes of Italian SMEs both at home and in destination countries. The next section addresses the hierarchization of IDs and its alleged consequences: the coming back of Fordist forms of work organization and the deterioration of the local production texture. The third section refers to the internationalization processes that are supposed to dis-embed district firms and their purported outcome: the spread of ‘bloody Taylorism’ in the factories of destination countries. In the concluding section; some remarks are put forward on a future research agenda on the ways transnational social spaces are going to be filled with new structures and practices of learning; imposition; resistance and cooperation.
Industrial districts; decline; evolution; internationalization; management learning; entrepreneurship
