Arnaldo Camuffo

Italian industrial districts as cognitive systems: Are they still reproducible?

Adopting a knowledge-based perspective, this study develops a framework of how Italian industrial districts (IDs) operate and evolve as cognitive systems. First, we analyse the mechanisms that facilitate knowledge diffusion across firms within IDs, the enabler of cross-firm knowledge transfer (absorptive capacity) and the process of producing new knowledge by combination. Within this analysis, we consider the formation of new firms resulting from the break-away of human resources from existing district firms (spin-offs) as a particular form of knowledge transfer and production within districts. Knowledge production by combination may take place not only within boundaries of IDs, but also involve external sources. We suggest that innovations made by combining internal and external knowledge have played an important role in shaping the evolutionary trajectories of IDs. Finally, again from the cognitive perspective, we address the issue of how globalization impacts on district systems, concentrating on the positive role that two different types of local actors play in their reproduction and evolution: the global–local firms and institutions providing knowledge-intensive business services.

Transforming Industrial Districts: Large Firms and Small Business Networks in the Italian Eyewear Industry

This study is an evolutionary comparative analysis of how large, vertically integrated firms and networks of small firms perform, in response to the challenges posed by globalization. It focuses on the Italian eyewear industry which represents an ideal laboratory for studying the establishment and transformation of such diverse production models under ceteris paribus conditions (same industry, same challenges, same product, and same geographical location). Looking at longitudinal statistical data for the Belluno eyewear district and case studies of the four leading companies in the industry, this study demonstrates that, locally embedded networks of small firms no longer represent an organizational structure as robust and stable as in the past. Globalization challenges such networks and demands adjustments that transform the nature of the Belluno eyewear district, away from the traditional stereotype so widespread in the literature, towards a configuration characterized by the presence of leading firms and moderate hierarchy.

Customer‐supplier integration forms in the air‐conditioning industry

Purpose – This paper explores what suppliers and customers do in order to integrate their operations across the supply chain. It also identifies on what contextual factors these specific CSI practices are contingent.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the multiple case study methodology as a basis for theory formulation. Insights from nine cases of OEM‐supplier relationships in the Italian high precision air conditioning industry are used to address the research questions and formulate theoretical propositions.Findings – The paper develops four theoretical propositions derived from a framework that identifies four CSI forms contingent on two contextual variables – the value impact of goods purchased from each supplier and the degree of purchasing goods customization.Research limitations/implications – This paper provides a framework that advances the understanding of effective supplier relations management in two ways. Firstly, it gets over the traditional dichotomy between arms length relations...

The Changing Nature of Internal Labor Markets

Research on Internal Labor Markets (ILMs) has had enormous influence on social sciences since the seminal work by Peter Doeringer and Michael Piore, thirty years ago.This article discusses the past and current contribution of the ILM concept to the development of labor economics, organization theory and human resource management and argues that research on ILMs remains important, despite the changes occurred in the economy. Therefore, a renovated effort of theoretical and field studies is required and desirable in order to reach a better understanding of the efficiency and equity issues the knowledge economy poses to the employment relation. In fact, the emergence of a “new employment contract”, characterized by less sticky a relation between employer and employees asks for a major re-conceptualization of ILMs that cannot be limited to a diverse, more detailed classification, or to an update of their possible variants. Such re-conceptualizationcould be linked with the “new organizational forms literature”, i.e. with that body of research that models organizations as hybrids or networks.

The effects of management education on careers and compensation

Purpose – This study aims to explore how the amount and the nature of learning accrued during an MBA – measured in terms of competency development – impact on career advancement and compensation.Design/methodology/approach – Applying nonparametric statistical analysis on data from behavioral event interviews and survey questionnaires to a sample of 44 Italian MBA graduates, the study investigates: the type and extent of competency development during the MBA programme and the relationship between this competency development and post‐MBA career and compensation.Findings – The findings support the hypothesis that the degree of competency development during the MBA programme enhances career advancement, and that some competencies, like planning, result orientation, networking, organizational awareness, system thinking and use of technology, do so particularly, which is consistent with literature on career competencies. No relationship is found, instead, between competency development during the MBA and compen...

The labour relations heritage and lean manufacturing at Fiat

The objective of the paper is interpreting, from an evolutionary perspective, recent developments of work organization and human resource management policies at Fiat Auto, one of the worlds largest automobile manufacturers, which achieved a successful restructuring in the early 1990s. Building on a heritage of adversarial labour relations and ‘mass production’ organizational principles, Fiat developed an original and to some extent hybrid version of ‘lean’ human resource management practices (teamwork, flexible compensation, multi-skilling, etc.). The paper analyses this process of organizational change from an evolutionary perspective based on the concept of dynamic capabilities. From this standpoint, IR. HRM and work organization practices are the result of a learning process, based on original development, imitation, analogical replication, combination and selection of organizational capabilities; organizational capabilities have a cumulative and path-dependent nature; workplace innovations are also r...

Rolling out lean production systems: a knowledge-based perspective

Purpose – Adopting a knowledge-based perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the roll-out process of lean production systems and explores the dimensions that might enhance or hinder its performance. It develops a framework to understand and design lean roll-out processes, identifying the research dimensions/design variables to classify and interpret such processes. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory multiple case study analyses seven lean roll-out processes in multinational companies’ plants. An original data set, developed on the basis of a purposely design research protocol, was built through two rounds of plant visits and structured interviews. The cross-case analysis compares and contrasts the lean roll-out processes according to the research dimensions constituting the framework. Findings – The effectiveness and the efficiency of the lean roll-out processes: first, negatively co-vary with the degree of lean knowledge codification; second, positively co-vary with the degre...

Breathing Shoes and Complementarities: Strategic Innovation in a Mature Industry

This paper tells the story of Geox, an Italian footwear manufacturer that, in less than a decade, has become one of the worlds largest shoe manufacturers. Applying the related notions of complementarity and performance landscape to study strategic positioning in the footwear industry, we show that, though grounded on product innovation (the original Geox breathes® patented system which allows ventilation in waterproof rubber sole), Geoxs competitive advantage has not grown out of operational excellence in single activities in the business, but, rather, derives from a unique and consistent configuration of complementary activities. Such configuration represents an innovative strategic position and corresponds to a peak in the footwear industry performance landscape. The case study offers anecdotal evidence in support of complementarity based economic theory. It confirms that, in the presence of complementarities, rivals find strategy imitation and reverse engineering difficult due to the unique nature of the relationships among complementary variables.

What Really Drives the Adoption of Modular Organizational Forms? An Institutional Perspective from Italian Industry-Level Data

While the rise of modular organizational forms is a global phenomenon, explicit causal models are currently available only for the US case. To date, no study has been conducted outside the USA about what drives firms to use modular organizational forms, and why would firms in some industries generally rely on more modular organizational forms than firms in other industries. Building on Schilling and Steensmas work of 2001, we apply general systems modularity theory to the Italian case and explain why in some industries there is a greater use of modular organizational forms using data from 68 manufacturing industries. The results of our regression analysis diverge significantly from the US case showing that, in the Italian case, organizational modularity is driven by labor intensity, industry specificities and nation-specific factors.

Competent Production Supervisors

While the manufacturing sector is vanishing in most European and North American regions, northeast Italian firms have successfully contrasted global competition thanks to superior manufacturing capabilities grounded, among other things, on peoples competencies. Applying nonparametric statistical analysis on data from 212 behavioral event and 44 repertory grid interviews, the research presented in this note investigates the nature of these competencies for production supervisors in northeast Italian firms. We identify four threshold and nine distinctive competencies and offer insights on the relationship between these competencies and northeast Italian firms manufacturing capability. We also suggest how to use competency tools to design skill development policies in industrial clusters and implement effective human resource management practices in small and medium-sized enterprises.