Paolo Bricco

The Italian North-West after Olivetti, between De-industrialization and the Declining of the Large Company

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Abstract

The paper analyses the industrial system of the North-West area in Italy, the declining of its large companies and the rising of local SMEs. This long process was created by the declining of the State-owned large companies, the emerging of a new generation of entrepreneurship, the general shift towards the post-industrial society. Within this contest, Olivetti is a paradigmatic case: Olivetti was a European leader in the personal computer industry, and in a very short time it collapsed. Its competitive advantage disappeared, and the Ivrea area was affected by unemployment and social problems. But in few years, a new industrial system came to light: it is mainly composed of SMEs in the mechanical sector, the «old» sector from which Olivetti started at the beginning of the XX century. Could we interpret this process as a sort of «technological reversion» of the local industrial system?

Keywords

  • Olivetti
  • Large Company
  • De-industrialization
  • PC Industry
  • Mechanical Industry
  • SME

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