Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Traditional manufacturing areas and the emergence of product-service systems: the case of Italy

  • Published:
Journal of Industrial and Business Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The recent technological boost has renewed opportunities for synergies between service activities and manufacturing industries, creating new models of value creation and the possible emergence of ‘product-service’ systems in many manufacturing areas. The paper aims at investigating this phenomenon looking at the agglomerative patterns of manufacturing and service activities in the contemporary Italian local productive systems. Referring to manufacturing local market areas identified by ISTAT in 2011, the paper proposes an original exploration of the relations between local manufacturing configurations and both their specialization in service activities and their systemic performances. The results suggest the emergence of ‘product-service’ systems only when specific services are localized in the manufacturing area.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Source: our elaborations

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In this work, we use the Eurostat classification of services based on NACE Rev. 2 (Eurostat 2016 in Appendix 1). This classification distinguishes between knowledge-intensive services (KISs) and less knowledge-intensive services (LKISs). Details in next Sect. 2.

  2. The EC Commission Staff (2009: 17) explicitly defines KIBS as a sub-set of KIS. For the empirical investigation, Knowledge intensive business services include Computer and related activities (NACE Rev.1.1 72), Research and development (NACE Rev.1.1 73), Legal, technical and advertising (NACE Rev.1.1 74.1-4), which are a part of Knowledge intensive high-tech services and Knowledge intensive market services.

  3. LMAs are identified by Istat (2014) on the basis of the 2011 Population Census with a new methodology of identification, which is a variation of the methodology used in 2001 for the identification of local labour systems (Istat 2005) and based on Travel-To-Work-Areas (TTWA). Istat (2015a) provides a full explanation of the differences between the two methodologies. Business Census data related to the years 2001 and 2011 at the establishment level have been applied to new LMAs (Istat 2015b, c).

  4. Istat (2015b, c) releases the list of 141 “industrial districts”; they are identified by a hierarchical algorithm. In the present work, we use the results of the first step of the algorithm which identifies, among the 611 LMAs, a set of LMAs specialized in manufacturing industries (see Istat 2015d for the definition of ‘manufacturing industries’ in terms of NACE Classification). Such LMAs are identified among those with significant LQ either in manufacturing, business services or consumer services, and with a value of LQ in manufacturing greater than 1.

  5. This set of additional variables at the LMA level are sourced from Istat (2015d).

  6. The foreign trade balance is: [(export – import)/(export + import)] × 100.

  7. It is the percentage ratio between the population of people in the range of 60–64 years old and those in the range 15–19 years (2011). Values lower than 100 indicate limited entry possibilities for young potential employees; values greater than 100 indicate potential difficulties to maintain constant production capacity.

  8. The Multiple Correspondence Analysis is based on the application to the Burt’s table of the Chi squared metrics. We apply the Burt matrix approach to MCA, i.e. the evaluation of the explained inertia proposed by Benźecri J. P. (Les Cahiers de l'Analyse des Donńees 4:377–379, 1979). This technique is used to analyse the contingency tables formed by the set of analysed categorical variables, and provides factors which represent the association among the variables’ categories.

  9. The Ward's minimum variance method is employed. In order to choose the most appropriate number of clusters, pseudo-F Calinski and Harabasz (1974) and Duda and Hart index have also been calculated and considered in addition to the dendrogram. Recall that the LMAs are identified thanks to 2011 Census data; while the MCA variables also include data of years 2012 and 2014.

References

  • Abdi, H., & Valentin, D. (2007). Multiple correspondence analysis. In Neil Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of measurement and statistics (pp. 651–657). Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andreoni, A., & Chang, H. J. (2016). Industrial policy and the future of manufacturing. Economia e Politica Industriale (Journal of Industrial and Business Economics).,43(4), 491–502.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, J. M., Beata, J., Molly, L., & Aaditya, M. (2016). Services reform and manufacturing performance: Evidence from India. The Economic Journal,126(590), 1–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, D., Pitelis, C., & Tomlinson, P. R. (2018). A place-based developmental regional industrial strategy for sustainable capture of co-created value. Cambridge Journal of Economics,42(6), 1521–1542.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baines, T., & Lightfoot, W. H. (2013). Servitization of the manufacturing firm: Exploring the operations practices and technologies that deliver advanced services. International Journal of Operations and Production Management,34(1), 2–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barca, F., McCann, P., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2012). The case for regional development intervention: Place-based versus place-neutral approaches. Journal of Regional Science,52(1), 134–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becattini, G. (1990). The Marshallian industrial district as a socioeconomic notion. In F. Pyke, G. Becattini, & W. Sengenberger (Eds.), Industrial districts and inter-firm co-operation in Italy (pp. 37–51). International Institute for Labour Studies: Genève.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becattini, G., Bellandi, M., & De Propris, L. (2011). Industrial districts: The contemporary debate. Economia e Politica Industriale,38(3), 53–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellandi, M., & De Propris, L. (2017). New forms of industrial districts. Economia e politica industriale (Journal of Industrial and Business Economics),44(4), 411–427.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellandi, M., De Propris, L., & Santini, E. (2019). Industry 4.0 + challenges to local productive systems and place-based integrated industrial policies. In P. Bianchi, C. R. Durán, & S. Labory (Eds.), Transforming industrial policy for the digital age: Production, territories and structural change (pp. 201–218). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellandi, M., & Santini, E. (2019). Territorial servitization and new local productive configurations: The case of the textile industrial district of Prato. Regional Studies,53(3), 356–365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biagi, F. (2013). ICT and productivity: A review of the literature. JRC-IPTS Working Papers on Digital Economy 2013-09. Seville: Institute of Prospective Technological Studies, Joint Research Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi, P., & Labory, S. (2018). Industrial policy for the manufacturing revolution. Perspectives on digital globalisation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bustinza, O. F., Bigdeli, A. Z., Baines, T., & Elliot, C. (2015). Servitization and competitive advantage: The importance of organizational structure and value chain position. Research-Technology Management,58(5), 53–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caliński, T., & Harabasz, J. (1974). A dendrite method for cluster analysis. Communications in Statistics,3, 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caloffi, A. (2017). System-based, light and complex: Industrial and local development policies in the thought of Giacomo Becattini. Economia e Politica Industriale (Journal of Industrial and Business Economics),44(4), 473–480.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ciffolilli, A., & Muscio, A. (2018). Industry 4.0: National and Regional Comparative Advantages in Key Enabling Technologies. European Planning Studies,26(12), 2323–2343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuaresma, J. C., Doppelhofer, G., Huber, F., & Piribauer, P. (2018). Human capital accumulation and long-term income growth projections for European regions. Journal of Regional Science,58(1), 81–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cusmano, L., Mancusi, M. L., & Morrison, A. (2010). Globalization of production and innovation: How outsourcing is reshaping an advanced manufacturing area. Regional Studies,44(3), 235–252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cusumano, M. A., Kahl, S. J., & Suarez, F. F. (2015). Services, industry evolution, and the competitive strategies of product firms. Strategic Management Journal,36(4), 559–575.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Vaal, A., & Van Den Berg, M. (1999). Producer services, economic geography, and services tradability. Journal of Regional Science,39(3), 539–572.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei Ottati, G. (2003). Exit, voice and the evolution of industrial districts: The case of the post-World War II economic development of Prato. Cambridge Journal of Economics,27(4), 501–522.

    Google Scholar 

  • EC Commission Staff. (2009). Challenges for EU support to innovation in services—Fostering new markets and jobs through innovation. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eurostat. (2016). High-tech industry and knowledge-intensive services (htec). Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS). Annex 3. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

  • Ganau, R., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2018). Industrial clusters, organized crime, and productivity growth in Italian SMEs. Journal of Regional Science,58(2), 363–385.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geels, F. W. (2002). Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: A multi-level perspective and a case-study. Research Policy,31(8), 1257–1274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giuliani, E., & Rabellotti, R. (2018). Italian industrial districts today: Between decline and openness to global value chains. In V. De Marchi, E. Di Maria, & G. Gereffi (Eds.), Local clusters in global value chains: Linking actors and territories through manufacturing and innovation (pp. 21–32). Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomes, E., Bustinza, Oscar F., Tarba, S., Khan, Z., & Ahammad, M. (2019). Antecedents and implications of territorial servitization. Regional Studies,53(3), 410–423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Götz, M., & Jankowska, B. (2017). Clusters and Industry 4.0—do they fit together? European Planning Studies,25, 1633–1653.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruber, H. (2017). Innovation, skills and investment: A digital industrial policy for Europe. Economia e Politica Industriale (Journal of Industrial and Business Economics),44(3), 327–343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horváth, K., & Rabetino, R. (2019). Knowledge-intensive territorial servitization: Regional driving forces and the role of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Regional Studies,53(3), 330–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iammarino, S., & McCann, P. (2006). The structure and evolution of industrial clusters: Transactions, technology and knowledge spillovers. Research Policy,35(7), 1018–1036.

    Google Scholar 

  • Istat. (2005). Distretti industriali e sistemi locali del lavoro 2001. 8° Censimento generale dell’industria e dei servizi, Roma.

  • Istat. (2014). I sistemi locali del lavoro 2011. Statistiche report, Roma, 17 dicembre 2014.

  • Istat. (2015a). La nuova geografia dei sistemi locali. Roma, 6 novembre 2015.

  • Istat. (2015b). I distretti industriali. Nota metodologica. Roma, 24 febbraio 2015.

  • Istat. (2015c). I distretti industriali. Roma, 6 novembre 2015.

  • Istat. (2015d). Rapporto Annuale 2015. La situazione del Paese, Roma 20 maggio 2015.

  • Istat. (2018). Rapporto sulla competitività dei settori produttivi—Edizione 2018, Roma 2018.

  • Kastalli, I. V., & Van Looy, B. (2013). Servitization: Disentangling the impact of service business model innovation on manufacturing firm performance. Journal of Operations Management,31(4), 169–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konzelmann, S., & Wilkinson, F. (2017). Co-operation and competition in production and exchange: The “district” form of industrial organization and development. Economia e Politica Industriale (Journal of Industrial and Business Economics),44(4), 393–410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuijken, B., Gemser, G., & Wijnberg, N. M. (2017). Effective product-service systems: A value-based framework. Industrial Marketing Management,60, 33–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lafuente, E., Vaillant, Y., & Vendrell-Herrero, F. (2017). Territorial servitization: Exploring the virtuous circle connecting knowledge-intensive services and new manufacturing businesses. International Journal of Production Economics,192, 19–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lafuente, E., Vaillant, Y., & Vendrell-Herrero, F. (2019). Territorial servitization and the manufacturing renaissance in knowledge-based economies. Regional Studies,53(3), 313–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lester, R. K., & Piore, M. J. (2009). Innovation—The missing dimension. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundvall, B. Å. (2016). From manufacturing nostalgia to a strategy for economic transformation. Economia e Politica Industriale (Journal of Industrial and Business Economics),43(3), 265–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, R. (2011). The local geographies of the financial crisis: From the housing bubble to economic recession and beyond. Journal of Economic Geography,11(4), 587–618.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCann, Philip. (2008). Globalization and economic geography: The world is curved, not flat. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society,1(3), 351–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, T., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2017). Track how technology is transforming work. Nature,544(7650), 290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller, E., & Zenker, A. (2001). Business services as actors of knowledge transformation: The role of KIBS in regional and national innovation systems. Research Policy,30(9), 1501–1516.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter, M. E., & Heppelmann, J. E. (2014). How smart, connected products are transforming competition. Harvard Business Review,92(11), 64–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rullani, E., Cozza, C., & Zanfei, A. (2016). Lost in transition: Systemic innovations and the new role of the state in industrial policy. Economia e Politica Industriale (Journal of Industrial and Business Economics),43(3), 345–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salais, R., & Storper, M. (1992). The four ‘worlds’ of contemporary industry. Cambridge Journal of Economics,16(2), 169–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwab, K. (2016). The fourth industrial revolution. Geneva: World Economic Forum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sforzi, F., & Boix, R. (2019). Territorial servitization in Marshallian industrial districts: The industrial district as a place-based form of servitization. Regional Studies,53(3), 398–409.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shearmur, R., & Doloreux, D. (2018). KIBS as both innovators and knowledge intermediaries in the innovation process: Intermediation as a contingent role. Papers in Regional Science,98(1), 191–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Storper, M. (2009). The economics of context, location and trade: Another great transformation? In G. Becattini, M. Bellandi, & L. De Propris (Eds.), A handbook of industrial districts (pp. 141–157). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strambach, S. (2008). Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) as drivers of multilevel knowledge dynamics. International Journal of Services, Technology and Management,10(2–4), 152–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vandermerwe, S., & Rada, J. (1988). Servitization of business: Adding value by adding services. European Management Journal,6(4), 314–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vendrell-Herrero, F., Bustinza, O. F., Parry, G., & Georgantzis, N. (2017). Servitization, digitization and supply chain interdependency. Industrial Marketing Management,60, 69–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vendrell-Herrero, F., & Wilson, J. R. (2017). Servitization for territorial competitiveness: Taxonomy and research agenda. Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal,27(1), 2–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2017). Trouble in the making? The future of manufacturing-led development. Washington: The World Bank Publications.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Via delle Pandette 32, 50127, Florence, Italy

    Marco Bellandi

  2. Business Statistics Directorate, ISTAT-Italian National Institute of Statistics, Via Cesare Balbo 16, 00184, Rome, Italy

    Silvia Lombardi

  3. Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, via Inama 5, Trento, Italy

    Erica Santini

Authors
  1. Marco Bellandi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Silvia Lombardi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Erica Santini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvia Lombardi.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 48 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bellandi, M., Lombardi, S. & Santini, E. Traditional manufacturing areas and the emergence of product-service systems: the case of Italy. J. Ind. Bus. Econ. 47, 311–331 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40812-019-00140-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40812-019-00140-y

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation