Competitive Advantages and Metropolitan Growth: The Case of the Turin Manufacturing System
Abstract
The most recent initiatives of cluster strategy analysis and implementation to revitalize Turin metropolitan region are illustrated in this paper. Theoretical and methodological, analytical and political assumptions interweave inextricably. First, the problem of regional competitive advantage and the underlying logics of interpretation are established as the expression of the structural dynamics that involve the contemporary economy. The quantitative and qualitative methodologies that were used to outline the existence of clusterized business systems in the Turin region are then examined by breaking down the Turin manufacturing system into eight clusters of three different types: a) strategic, b) innovative, c) traditional. Starting from the clusters identified, the logics of interpretation of the Turin system is grasped and, as a consequence, the strategies of political intervention. The problems of implementation of an industrial policy are then examined, centered on the creation of 'Cluster Observatories', the reorganization of the local economic and urban planning offices, and the establishment of a special agency for industrial policy.References
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