L’information Technology e la formazione di un nuovo modello business to business: i distretti digitali

Abstract

The diffusion of the Internet and its growing penetration in business and household lives, are, now, established facts. The assessment of the impact of new network-linked technological applications, the so called e-business solutions, on business strategic and organisational structure, appears less uniform. The purpose of this paper is to outline first the basic principles leading the new economy, and, afterwards, the consequences in terms of reformulation of enterprise's business model, particularly referring to the relationships existing between enterprises and industrial districts. The research path is carried out on a dual level: on the first one,  the industrial district is seen as an independent entity, whilst the second level of analysis comes out of another consideration in the theoretical analysis: the possibility to consider an industrial district as a “relationships network”.

The employment of ICT allows the creation of an environment which owns some proper and peculiar characteristics of the industrial districts: the quickness of  the circulation  of information, co-operation matched to competition, full mutual visibility among operators, education and investment for reputation and fiduciary links, sharing behavioural and language practices. On the basis of the results of several researches carried out on this issue, it is possible to maintain that strong resistance and suspicion still exist against adopting ICT. Adopting ICT seems to be the result of single enterprise independent initiatives and of  their almost forced adjustment, due to the fear of losing competitiveness on the market.