INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER ECONOMICS

The aim of the course is to provide students with the theoretical and analytical tools to understand the role of industrial clusters as forms of efficient organization of the economic reality, but also as possible models for innovation policies. Clusters will be studied in particular as productive ecosystems that provide fundamental external economies to the competitive advantage of companies. The main assumption is the idea that the international competitiveness of a company increases in relation to its ability to access a set of industrial commons, especially in sharing complex knowledge with other companies, institutions, and social cooperation networks. In this perspective, an important task is to analyze the role and different characteristics of “territorial capital” as a tangible and intangible asset that influences the competitive capabilities of companies.

Students will develop specific skills in the analysis of different business systems such as industrial districts, technological clusters, and innovation ecosystems. During the course students will be involved in the analysis of real case studies, focusing on the external resources that affect firms' performances and, consequently, on the main policies to improve the industrial commons. Students will get even useful knowledge to asses location strategies of firms and affiliates in international contexts. Attention will be also paid to clusters of firms as an economic model able to integrate institutional and cultural character of the local system with the opening to the global value chains.

Students must have the basic knowledge of microeconomics and industrial economics. Some theoretical concepts will be recalled during the lessons

1. Firm competitiveness and territorial capital: why industrial clusters are important in the modern economy
2. A geography of industrial clusters in Italy and around the world
3. Economic externalities and industrial commons
4. Local determinants of firms' competitive advantage
5. The case of Silicon Valley: uniqueness and a possible pattern for an innovation ecosystem
6. Polarized regional development: the core-periphery model
7. An analytical model of the Marshallian triad
8. Knowledge economy and complexity of production spaces
9. Industrial clusters in Global value chains
10. Innovative ecosystems and policies for industrial clusters

Textbook:
Vicente J., Economics of Clusters. A Brief History of Cluster Theories and Policy, Palgrave, 2016

Integrative readings:
Bellandi M., De Propris L., Torre A., "From Marshall’s external economies to external economies of transformation in contemporary industrial spaces", Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1/2025
Buciuni G., G. Pisano, “Knowledge integrators and the survival of manufacturing clusters”, Journal of Economic Geography (2018) pp. 1–21
Corò G., S. Micelli, “Industrial Districts as Local Innovation Systems”, Review of Economic Conditions in Italy, 2009
De Marchi V., Di Maria E., Gereffi G., Local Clusters in Global Value Chains. Linking Actors and Territories Through Manufacturing and Innovation, Routledge, 2017
Porter, M., “Location, Competition, and Economic Development: Local Clusters in a Global Economy”, The Journal of the Local Economy Policy, 27 (1), 2012

The student can choose bettween a written examination that will focus on the topics of the course, or a research work on an industrial cluster or a theoretical issue agreed with the professor

written and oral

The highest marks will be awarded to students who demonstrate full mastery of theoretical concepts and their application to real-life cases.
Active participation in class will also be assessed.

Lectures, seminars, case studies, active learning group

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development