The Governance of the Global Value Chain of Italian Industrial Districts: Selected Case Studies (Estrategias de internacionalizacion productiva de la produccion y los distritos del Veneto)
38 Pages Posted: 27 May 2008 Last revised: 8 Dec 2008
Date Written: May 1, 2008
Abstract
This study deals with the reallocation of firms localized in three important Veneto districts in Romania producing footwear, furniture and industrial refrigeration and air conditioning. The Veneto region has a strong specialization in those sectors at the national level.
The footwear and furniture firms present a vertically fragmented structure according to a phase specialization. Firms have moved abroad the practice of sourcing that they were used to practice in the domestic economy; footwear firms have commissioned to foreign subcontractors part of the productive process, or the whole of it or have established own productive plants abroad through FDI. Furniture firms have made recourse mainly to FDI with the aim of control the source of raw materials (wood) while refrigeration and air conditioning firms have moved abroad with the aim of controlling the growing consumer markets of the East, mainly the Russian market and commission to local manufacturer only the production of some components. These firms are intensive in capital and technology; the main components are bought on the international market and are assembled in Romania. The product is distributed directly in Romania and in the neighboring countries and cost reduction is not the main issue.
To conclude we discuss some theoretical issues connected with the control of the value chain relations in the three cases examined and question the standard classification put forward by Gereffi, Humphrey and Sturgeon in 2005.
Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.
Keywords: production organization, global value chains, fragmentation, internationalization, footwear, furniture, refrigeration industry
JEL Classification: F23, L23, L67
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation