Abstract
The present paper focuses on the problem of the governance of industrial districts in Italy. During the last decade this issue has been addressed more and more intensively by Italian scholars and policy makers both interested in exploring the drivers of competitiveness for industrial districts and in proposing solutions for helping some industrial districts to overcome crisis periods. More precisely, some authors have noticed how in some industrial districts, especially the ones based on a network of micro and small firms, there is a gap between the localised manufacturing competencies (often very strong) and the diffused ability of strategic thinking (often very weak), especially as an organic system of firms. This has underlined the relevance that collective and meta-actors (whether they are leading firms or local institutions) could exert in these contexts for recovering an overall strategic view of the system and for sustaining the competitiveness and the existence of the district itself. The literature that so far has touched upon the governance of industrial districts has mostly used the term 'meta-management' to refer to it. The paper presents a review of that literature, identifying the core themes that have been investigated or conceptually developed so far. Building on the critical consideration, that the research about the governance of industrial districts is dominated by a prescriptive tone and by a mere anecdotal empirical evidence, the present paper aims at infusing the issue of the governance of industrial district with a stronger theoretical grounding. The rationale behind this paper is that the literature on corporate governance can be applied fruitfully to the governance of industrial districts, which is here defined as the relationship among various participants in an industrial district who determine its direction and performance. Through the application of different theoretical perspectives, coming from corporate governance literature, to the governance of industrial districts, an integrative theoretical framework is proposed and paths for future research on this line are indicated.