IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mul/j0hje1/doi10.1430-34268y2011i1p145-164.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Italian Firms between Crisis and the new Globalization

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Accetturo
  • Anna Giunta
  • Salvatore Rossi

Abstract

This paper analyzes the characteristics of Italian firms involved in global value chains («intermediate» firms) by using the Bank of Italy survey on industrial companies. Intermediate firms show, on average, worse features than «final» firms: smaller size, lower share of white collars, lower productivity and export propensity. However we observe a strong heterogeneity, depending on the ability (and modalities) to upgrade along the value chains. There are wide differences between upgrading and non-upgrading (marginal) intermediate firms in terms of size, efficiency, human capital endowment and international competitiveness. During the 2008-2009 crisis, marginal intermediate firms performed definitely worse; moreover, facing a collapse in world trade, firms that were upgrading by expanding their international linkages were more severely hit than those that were differentiating their internal functions.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Accetturo & Anna Giunta & Salvatore Rossi, 2011. "The Italian Firms between Crisis and the new Globalization," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 145-164.
    • Handle: RePEc:mul:j0hje1:doi:10.1430/34268:y:2011:i:1:p:145-164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1430/34268
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1430/34268
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baldwin, Richard & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2007. "Offshoring: General Equilibrium Effects on Wages, Production and Trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 6218, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Sofronis K. Clerides & Saul Lach & James R. Tybout, 1998. "Is Learning by Exporting Important? Micro-Dynamic Evidence from Colombia, Mexico, and Morocco," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(3), pages 903-947.
    3. Robert C. Feenstra, 1998. "Integration of Trade and Disintegration of Production in the Global Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 31-50, Fall.
    4. Olivier Cattaneo & Gary Gereffi & Cornelia Staritz, 2010. "Global Value Chains in a Postcrisis World : A Development Perspective," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2509.
    5. Saliola, Federica & Zanfei, Antonello, 2009. "Multinational firms, global value chains and the organization of knowledge transfer," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 369-381, March.
    6. F. Daveri & C. Jona-Lasinio, 2007. "Off-shoring and productivity growth in the Italian manufacturing industries," Economics Department Working Papers 2007-EP08, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    7. Robert C. Feenstra, 1998. "Integration of Trade and Disintegration of Production in the Global Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 31-50, Fall.
    8. Anna Giunta & Annamaria Nifo & Domenico Scalera, 2012. "Subcontracting in Italian Industry: Labour Division, Firm Growth and the North--South Divide," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 1067-1083, December.
    9. Anna M. Falzoni & Lucia Tajoli, 2011. "Offshoring and the Skill Composition of Employment in the Italian Manufacturing Industries," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, issue 1, pages 121-153, January-M.
    10. Giuliani, Elisa & Pietrobelli, Carlo & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2005. "Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Lessons from Latin American Clusters," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 549-573, April.
    11. Gene M. Grossman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2008. "Trading Tasks: A Simple Theory of Offshoring," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1978-1997, December.
    12. Roberto Basile & Davide Castellani & Antonello Zanfei, 2009. "National boundaries and the location of multinational firms in Europe," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(4), pages 733-748, November.
    13. Baldwin, Richard & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2014. "Trade-in-goods and trade-in-tasks: An integrating framework," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 51-62.
    14. Roberta Rabellotti & Alessia Amighini, 2003. "The effect of globalisation on industrial districts in Italy: evidence from the footwear sector," ERSA conference papers ersa03p500, European Regional Science Association.
    15. John Humphrey & Hubert Schmitz, 2002. "How does insertion in global value chains affect upgrading in industrial clusters?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(9), pages 1017-1027.
    16. Stefano Federico, 2010. "Outsourcing versus Integration at Home or Abroad," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 742, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. Giancarlo Corò & Roberto Grandinetti, 1999. "Strategie di delocalizzazione e processi evolutivi nei distretti industriali italiani," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 4, pages 897-924.
    18. Bair, Jennifer & Gereffi, Gary, 2001. "Local Clusters in Global Chains: The Causes and Consequences of Export Dynamism in Torreon's Blue Jeans Industry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1885-1903, November.
    19. Tiziano Razzolini & Davide Vannoni, 2009. "Production to Order and Performance in Domestic and Foreign Markets," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 437-466.
    20. Stefano Federico, 2010. "Outsourcing versus integration at home or abroad and firm heterogeneity," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 47-63, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Valter Di Giacinto & Andrea Sechi & Alessandro Tosoni, 2022. "The performance of Italian Industrial Districts in and out of the 2008-2012 crisis," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 701, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    2. Nenci, Silvia & Fusacchia, Ilaria & Giunta, Anna & Montalbano, Pierluigi & Pietrobelli, Carlo, 2022. "Mapping global value chain participation and positioning in agriculture and food: stylised facts, empirical evidence and critical issues," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 11(2), July.
    3. Giorgia Giovannetti & Enrico Marvasi & Marco Sanfilippo, 2013. "Supply Chains and the Internalization of SMEs: Evidence from Italy," Working Papers - Economics wp2013_30.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    4. Marco Alderighi & Alberto A. Gaggero, 2012. "Air Accessibility and Export Capability of the Italian Manufacturing Industry," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 4, pages 635-662.
    5. Giovannetti, Giorgia & Marvasi, Enrico, 2016. "Food exporters in global value chains: Evidence from Italy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 110-125.
    6. Giorgia Giovannetti & Enrico Marvasi & Marco Sanfilippo, 2015. "Supply chains and the internationalization of small firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 845-865, April.
    7. Giorgio Albareto & Paolo Finaldi Russo, 2012. "Financial fragility and growth prospects: credit rationing during the crisis," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 127, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    8. Emanuele Brancati & Raffaele Brancati & Andrea Maresca, 2017. "Global value chains, innovation and performance: firm-level evidence from the Great Recession," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(5), pages 1039-1073.
    9. Raoul Minetti & Pierluigi Murro & Zeno Rotondi & Susan Chun Zhu, 2019. "Financial Constraints, Firms’ Supply Chains, and Internationalization," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 327-375.
    10. Alessandro Arrighetti & Fabio Landini & Andrea Lasagni, 2021. "Swimming upstream throughout the turmoil: Evidence on firm growth during the great recession," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 68(3), pages 322-344, July.
    11. Luigi Cannari, 2011. "Networks of Firms and Local Territory: A Comment," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 4, December.
    12. Enrico Beretta & Silvia Del Prete, 2013. "Banking consolidation and bank-firm credit relationships: the role of geographical features and relationship characteristics," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 901, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anna Giunta & Domenico Scalera & Francesco Trivieri & Jeffrey B. Nugent & Mariarosaria Agostino, 2011. "Firm Productivity, Organizational Choice and Global Value Chain," Working Papers 2011R09, Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness.
    2. Emanuele Brancati & Raffaele Brancati & Andrea Maresca, 2017. "Global value chains, innovation and performance: firm-level evidence from the Great Recession," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(5), pages 1039-1073.
    3. Christensen, Jonas Gade, 2011. "Productivity, Size, and the Disintegration of Industrial Production," Working Papers in Economics 07/11, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    4. Valentina De Marchi & Joonkoo Lee & Gary Gereffi, 2014. "Globalization, Recession and the Internationalization of Industrial Districts: Experiences from the Italian Gold Jewellery Industry," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 866-884, April.
    5. Richard Baldwin, 2013. "Trade and Industrialization after Globalization's Second Unbundling: How Building and Joining a Supply Chain Are Different and Why It Matters," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization in an Age of Crisis: Multilateral Economic Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century, pages 165-212, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Rosario Crinò, 2010. "Service Offshoring and White-Collar Employment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(2), pages 595-632.
    7. Pierluigi Montalbano & Silvia Nenci & Carlo Pietrobelli, 2018. "Opening and linking up: firms, GVCs, and productivity in Latin America," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 917-935, April.
    8. Henry Wai-chung Yeung & Neil M. Coe, 2015. "Toward a Dynamic Theory of Global Production Networks," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 91(1), pages 29-58, January.
    9. Nenci, Silvia & Fusacchia, Ilaria & Giunta, Anna & Montalbano, Pierluigi & Pietrobelli, Carlo, 2022. "Mapping global value chain participation and positioning in agriculture and food: stylised facts, empirical evidence and critical issues," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 11(2), July.
    10. Victor Stolzenburg & Daria Taglioni & Deborah Winkler, 2019. "Economic upgrading through global value chain participation: which policies increase the value-added gains?," Chapters, in: Stefano Ponte & Gary Gereffi & Gale Raj-Reichert (ed.), Handbook on Global Value Chains, chapter 30, pages 483-505, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Montalbano, Pierluigi & Nenci, Silvia & Pietrobelli, Carlo, 2017. "Opening and linking up: Firms, global value chains and productivity in Latin America," MERIT Working Papers 2017-030, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Andrea González & Juan Carlos Hallak, 2022. "Relational links for insertion in non‐mass global value chains: Opportunities for middle‐income countries," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 653-672, May.
    13. Pauline Debanes, 2018. "Modes of Insertion into Global Value Chains as a Source of Firms' Heterogeneity?," Working Papers halshs-01849224, HAL.
    14. Donatella Baiardi & Valeria Gattai & Piergiovanna Natale, 2021. "Estimating the ex‐ante and the ex‐post effects of Chinese outward FDI," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(12), pages 3641-3673, December.
    15. Anna Giunta & Annamaria Nifo & Domenico Scalera, 2012. "Subcontracting in Italian Industry: Labour Division, Firm Growth and the North--South Divide," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 1067-1083, December.
    16. Linqing Liu & Shiye Mei, 2016. "Visualizing the GVC research: a co-occurrence network based bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 953-977, November.
    17. Valentina De Marchi & Matthew Alford, 2022. "State policies and upgrading in global value chains: A systematic literature review," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 88-111, March.
    18. Emanuele Bacchiocchi & Massimo Florio & Anna Giunta, 2012. "Internationalisation and the agglomeration effect in the global value chain: the case of Italian automotive suppliers," International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(3), pages 267-290.
    19. Navas-Alemán, Lizbeth, 2011. "The Impact of Operating in Multiple Value Chains for Upgrading: The Case of the Brazilian Furniture and Footwear Industries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1386-1397, August.
    20. Valeria Gattai & Valentina Trovato, 2014. "Estimating sourcing premia with Italian regional data," Working Papers 276, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2014.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fragmentation; Offshoring; Global Value Chains; Upgrading; Crisis; D230; L230; L240;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mul:j0hje1:doi:10.1430/34268:y:2011:i:1:p:145-164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.rivisteweb.it/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.