I: Industrial Districts: Crucial Competitive Factors, Research Activity and Productivity -- Competitiveness and its Socio-Economic Foundations: Empirical Evidence on the Italian Industrial Districts -- Geographical Agglomeration in R&D Games: Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Evidence -- Efficiency and Localisation: the Case of Italian Districts -- Do State Subsidies Have a Stronger Impact when Provided to District Firms? An Empirical Analysis on Italian Data -- II: Industrial Districts and Foreign Competitiveness: Export and Internationalisation Performance -- The Positive Link Between Geographical Agglomeration and Export Intensity: The Engine of Italian Endogenous Growth? -- EU and Non EU Export Performance of Italian Firms. Is There an Industrial District Effect? -- Industrial Districts, Horizontal and Vertical Integration and Export Performance -- The District Advantage in Small-Medium Firm Internationalisation -- From SMEs to Industrial Districts in the Process of Internationalisation: Theory and Evidence.

Several interesting results on the economics of industrial districts are collected in this book. The first part investigates over internal determinants of industrial district competitiveness looking at internal productivity, at patterns of innovation and at those factors which create a favorable industrial atmosphere. The second part of the book investigates over foreign competitiveness of industrial districts focusing on the performance of export and of other forms of internationalisation.