Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Transport infrastructure investment has been the cornerstone of many development strategies. However, the returns of transport infrastructure investments have frequently been below expectations. In this chapter we argue that the weak economic returns of new infrastructure investments are partially the result of poor government quality. Decision-makers in areas with strong institutional deficiencies have had a tendency to resort to large and highly visible ‘prestige’ infrastructure projects, based of political interests over sound socioeconomic evaluations, to the detriment of more humble interventions aimed at addressing transport bottlenecks. As illustrated by a number of examples from some of the less developed regions of Europe, the consequence of this trend has been a proliferation of ‘white elephants’ of dubious economic and social value. Regions with a better government quality, by contrast, have invested more in less ‘glitzy’, but more necessary infrastructure projects with better economic results.

In this chapter the authors investigate the adaptability of regional production systems—characterized by localized learning dynamics—to globalization processes. In applying an institutional perspective to the analysis of regional economic change in Italian industrial districts, the argument is developed that successful adaptation is most likely in situations of hybrid institutional adjustments, in which fundamental institutional change aimed at triggering new economic developments in certain industry segments is combined with institutional persistence in others in order to actively integrate long-established industries into the restructuring process. This is illustrated empirically by analyzing regional restructuring over the past 35 years in the Canavese district in Italy, a district traditionally dominated by the automotive–metallurgical industry around Fiat and the electronics–mechatronics industry around Olivetti.

The authors propose a research agenda based on the premise that entrepreneurship can and should be viewed as an institution. This approach assumes that typical structures and processes involved in founding new businesses reflect common social understandings held by members of a group about the value of entrepreneurship and how it should be undertaken. It also assumes that these behavioral patterns and social understandings vary by geographic region and over time.

An important task in furthering entrepreneurship research based on this approach is identifying key dimensions along which such institutional variation occurs. Here, the authors discuss two main dimensions that we argue merit more focused attention: modes of entry and modes of governance. Drawing on existing literature, they offer a number of hypotheses about conditions that are likely to be associated with group-level variation in each of these dimensions, and the impact of such variations on organizational outcomes.