The aim of this early stage study is to put forward some further reflections on the debate on the evolution of the district model through an assessment of post-2000 developments. The paper is focused; in particular; on the consequences of internationalization processes of Italian SMEs both at home and in destination countries. The next section addresses the hierarchization of IDs and its alleged consequences: the coming back of Fordist forms of work organization and the deterioration of the local production texture. The third section refers to the internationalization processes that are supposed to dis-embed district firms and their purported outcome: the spread of ‘bloody Taylorism’ in the factories of destination countries. In the concluding section; some remarks are put forward on a future research agenda on the ways transnational social spaces are going to be filled with new structures and practices of learning; imposition; resistance and cooperation.
Industrial districts; decline; evolution; internationalization; management learning; entrepreneurship
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