La riorganizzazione del sistema industriale italiano tra outsourcing locale e delocalizzazione internazionale: il caso di un'area manifatturiera matura

[Autom. eng. transl.] After a brief introduction to the interpretative categories of the outsourcing phenomenon (paragraph 2) and methodological introduction to the work (paragraph 3), this contribution empirically analyzes the recent outsourcing choices in the manufacturing sector of an advanced region, evaluating relevance, areas functional and determinant of off-shoring processes on an international scale (offshoring) with respect to the use of local or national markets for intermediate material inputs and services (paragraph 4). In particular, the contribution focuses on the characteristics of companies that have followed outsourcing paths on an international scale, evaluating, through econometric analysis (paragraph 5), the relevance of self-selection processes reported in the literature. The empirical analysis focuses on a sample of Lombard companies, representative of the regional manufacturing sector, and employs the results of a questionnaire survey conducted in 2005. The case of Lombardy appears to be of general interest, for a reflection on current trends in the Italian system , due to the structural features of the Lombard economy, its weight in the Italian context and the role often assumed in the historical dynamics of national economic evolution. The Lombard production system is characterized by marked heterogeneity, with a persistent and significant industrial core (in 2007 equal to 33.1% of the regional added value, compared to a national average of 26.6%) and a significant variety of sectorial specializations and actors productive, in various ways affected by emerging processes of international fragmentation. The opening of the Lombard economy to international markets, of absolute weight due to the Italian dynamics of integration in global markets and production chains, in fact implies a particular exposure to competitive pressures and global changes, both of a cyclical nature and of a long-term nature . Above all, as pointed out, the Lombard case appears to be of extreme interest in the current panorama of transformation of Italian industry due to the importance that the area has assumed in the previous phases of reorganization of the national manufacturing system. It was first a center of Fordist production and following the deverticalization of the large enterprise, widespread industrialization and flexible specialization, with marked district forms. Recently we are witnessing a consolidation of reticular or "almost hierarchical" organizational forms. In this perspective, the evidence on the Lombard system is related to the more general national tendencies found in other recent empirical contributions.