Sistemi di imprese. A proposito della nuova raccolta di saggi di Sebastiano Brusco (e della precedente)

One of the things taught by Sebastiano Brusco is that the firm taken as a unit of analysis may turn out to be too large or too small. Too large when we address the problem of the minimum efficient size, which must refer, not to the firm as a whole, but to each single stage of the production process. Too small when the focus is on the ability to compete, which must regard, not the individual firms, but the systems of firms positioned in the different productive filières. In this perspective, a special place belongs to the industrial districts, which are, at one and the same time, systems of firms and communities of persons. Along with the paradigm of the isolated firm, Brusco's analysis also rejects the broad taxonomies upon which the models of specialization tend to be based. What really matters, in his view, is not the sector in which a product belongs, but which product we are actually dealing with, which relations are established within the relevant system of firms, and in which market segment the final producers will take their place. Clearly, such information can only be gathered in a direct way, through the field studies that Brusco was so tireless in organizing.