Lauretta Rubini

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Ferrara

This paper investigates the relationship between informal institutions and resilience across EU regions in the years following the 2008 Great Recession. By using voluntary work as a proxy for informal institutions, we analyse its association with regional resilience over two different periods: the resistance phase (2008–2010) and the recovery phase...

A growing body of literature suggests that Industry 4.0 is the result of complex interactions and coordination between technical and social aspects in pursuit of the digital transformation of production processes. Policy solutions and instruments adopted by governments at various levels of the system contribute to catalysing the sociotechnical chan...

European regions are characterized by different economic, technical and social conditions. Such differences might also explain the different strength of European regions in attracting foreign direct investments (FDI). Following recent strands of literature, in this paper we try to identify whether the presence of regional differences in the social...

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As hereafter) have been widely examined in the economic and business literature under many perspectives. However, the industry-level view, specifically the relation between industrial policies and M&A waves at the sectoral level, has remained rather unexplored. This article contributes to fill this gap by empirically inv...

Focusing on the Italian population of academic entrepreneurs, we analyze the effect of establishing a spinoff firm on researchers' attitudes towards carrying out other activities in collaboration with firms, namely, co-publishing and co-patenting. We investigate the heterogeneity in this effect in terms of existing collaborations with firms in the...

Analisi economica dell'industria della musica. Dalla fruizione tramite supporti fisici allo shift di paradigma post rivoluzione digitale, nuovi scenari e nuovi territori da esplorare.

Health-related sectors have become increasingly strategic for the structural change that the Chinese government is pursuing. After a brief sketch of the institutional setting, the chapter first illustrates the main health policies, that is the major reforms that China has undertaken with respect to the provision of healthcare and to the financing o...

The chapter describes the trajectory of Chinese economy along the 40 years of reforms started by Deng Xiaoping. The goal is to better understand the changes and evolution of demand and supply of healthcare goods and services in China in the light of the impressive Chinese growth and economic development. Beside the Open Door and Go Global policies,...

The chapter analyses some of the manifold initiatives implemented by the Chinese government in order to foster research and innovation as tools to promote the shift of the healthcare sector from “Made in China” to “Designed in China”. After a description of the main projects to strengthen the scientific and academic endowment, the analysis then des...

This chapter describes how Western and domestic firms are competing in the various sub-segments of the Chinese market. The analysis begins with the impact of China’s Open Door policy and of Foreign Direct Investments in China by Western multinationals. Then, we consider China’s Go Global strategy and recent trends in Chinese expansion abroad via gr...

The chapter explores the intertwined relation between health and economic growth. In China, improvements in the health status of the population have powered the economic growth experienced by the country following the launch of the open door policy. Conversely, the emergence of a Chinese middle class and the improvement of economic conditions for a...

The chapter summarizes the key ideas and issues described in previous chapters.

The relationship between regional institutional quality and firms’ productivity in the period 2010–14 is investigated by regressing a measure of total factor productivity for European manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises on a regional level index of institutional quality and its components, the rule of law and government effectiveness....

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are acknowledged as a powerful tool used to foster development and to broaden people’s agency. This being so, ICT are also the results of specific production processes. And, little attention has been given to the degree of sustainability that the places that are currently in charge of producing ICT a...

This book explores the ongoing transition of China’s economy by examining how its healthcare industry is growing and changing. The coronavirus pandemic has reinforced one of the authors' key points: in our complex, fragile, and interconnected societies, the production of health is a vital strategic ‘industry’. The case of China is particularly sali...

We analyse one of the most important policy experiences for industrial clustering in Southern China—the Specialised Towns programme—that has transformed some Chinese clusters into the backbone of global production chains. We offer a long-term, detailed overview of the policy programme and of Guangdong’s specialised towns, classifying them as endoge...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the case of selective industrial policies for the automotive industry in Thailand. Design/methodology/approach Founding on previous literature and official government documents, the authors describe the implemented policies, dividing them into four phases according to the main trend they f...

Relevant literature tends to take innovation catch-up of emerging markets’ latecomer firms almost for granted. However, not all catch-up efforts are successful and some of these firms remain stuck in catching-up or exit from the market. In the search for explanations, this paper investigates the mediating effects of opportunity capture against thos...

This study addresses the following research questions: what happens to the propensity to collaborate with other firms, once the researcher creates his or her own venture? Does he or she decrease collaboration, or does it grow? This question has been overlooked by the current literature, even though it carries important policy implications. Our key...

Transnational research networks (TRN) are becoming increasingly complex. Such complexity may have both positive and negative effects on the quality of research. Our work studies the evolution over time of Chinese TRN and the role of complexity on the quality of Chinese research, given the leading role this country has recently acquired in internati...

This paper investigates the combined role of innovation support policies and firm's own innovative activities on the performance of Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in high-tech sectors. By distinguishing two components of innovative activities - research and development (R&D) investments and embedded innovative capacity - the pap...

In recent years, the impressive growth of China after the opening to market economy is facing long-term sustainability risks. In particular, the necessity to couple economic growth with an increase in the population's well-being has started to be raised. As health is a pivotal sector in terms of impact on life quality of the population, to deepen t...

China is nowadays the first market and producer in the automotive sector. However, Chinese actors still look not able to compete internationally with the global champions of the sector, both as automakers and component-makers. In this context, we analyse the policies for technological upgrading of the sector, on which national government have great...

Almost ten years after the launch of the SciTech Guideline, between the end of the 12th five-year plan(2011-2015) and the beginning of the 13th (2016-2020), the Chinese government has issued the Made in China 2025 plan (MiC 2025). It is the first out of three plans being part of a wider initiative having the aim of making China a manufacturing powe...

We critically analyse the case of selective industrial policies for automotive industry in Thailand. Founding on previous literature and official government documents, we describe the implementing policies, dividing them in four phases, according to the main trend they followed. We suggest which results the policies have or have not reached by anal...

Clusters of specialized firms are now coming to be recognized as an important level of integration and organization in successful industrial economies. Such clusters, among which are industrial districts, were prominent in nineteenth-century European industrial development (in Italy, Britain, and Germany) and in the United States, and then in Japan...

Il partenariato transatlantico su commercio e investimenti (TTIP – Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) è un accordo attualmente in corso di negoziazione tra Unione Europea e Stati Uniti volto alla creazione di un’ampia zona di libero scambio. L’accordo dovrebbe riguardare la riduzione delle barriere (di natura sia tariffaria che regolat...

Secondo il cosiddetto paradosso Europeo, l’Europa è particolarmente efficace nel produrre innovazione, ma non ugualmente efficace nel commercializzarla, specie se confrontata con altri paesi come, ad esempio, gli Stati Uniti (Clarysse et al., 2007; Dosi et al., 2006; Conti e Gaule, 2011). L’Agenda di Lisbona, ossia il piano strategico di sviluppo...

This paper explores the logic and the institutional basis of measurement of IC under western institutional environment and compares it with the peculiarity of the Chinese context. Furthermore, three dimensions and three major measurement indexes are analysed in order to understand their appliability to the Chinese context.

The analysis starts from the recognition of the difficulties that both Europe and the US are facing in dealing with the current economic crisis and of the emergence of a new middle class in China with increasing needs in terms of welfare. This paper suggests that the exportation of high-­-quality, health-­-related goods and services from the West t...

Purpose To provide an updated picture of the emergence of specific firms, cities and sectors of excellence in one of the best performing industrial areas of China: Guangdong Province. Design/methodology/approach The paper focuses on a single Province-case study and zooms on its leading territories, sectors, firms and policies. Geographical areas,...

Purpose The aim of this paper is to emphasize the role of the place of origin in overcoming the information asymmetries that characterize in particular “experience” and “credence” goods. Design/methodology/approach After having summarized the role of the country‐of‐origin (COO) in facilitating producers to effectively communicate to consumers the...

By concentrating on one of the key locations of global manufacturing, this volume offers a contribution to contemporary industry studies. The rates of growth that have characterized the southern Guangdong province in the last three decades are unique, even with respect to the more general and often cited Chinese experience. But what role have gover...

The paper studies the evolution in the support to firms in China. Using a tailored imitative learning approach, Chinese policy makers have supported national champions (similarly to the Japanese experience), while also favouring the emergence of sectoral agglomerations of SMEs (as in the case of clusters and industrial districts). By means of an an...

This paper aims at studying the combined interaction of innovation policies and innovative capacity of firms in the relation between R&D investment and firm’s performance. The analysis is carried out on a sample of Chinese firms with the general purpose of shedding some light on the role played by public and private actors in increasing the innovat...

Purpose This paper aims at providing a new point of view in the comparison between the sectoral specialization of Italian firms and that of companies of some emerging countries, both apparently concentrating on so‐called traditional sectors. What is argued in this paper is that, even if belonging to the same product category, goods produced by Ital...

Studying first‐comers industrialization processes or today’s “new‐comers” experiences of industrial development it is clear that firms are not indifferent to geography. This paper illustrates the experience of the Southern China Guangdong Province, where, rather differently from what has been happening in many countries, agglomerations of firms ha...

This article deals with the transfer of knowledge in science-based research networks, with particular reference to the role of international networking for the quality of research. A high quality basic research system is the base for the establishment of effective mechanisms of knowledge spillovers and diffusion within the academic and to the produ...

Industrial development policies in southern China: the specialised towns programme - The aim of this article is to provide an updated picture of the ongoing policies implemented by the government of the Guangdong Province to foster the development (and the institutional acknowledgement) of a growing number of industrial clusters, defined as "specia...

Il volume offre un contributo agli studi sull’industria contemporanea, concentrando la propria attenzione su uno dei luoghi centrali della produzione globale: la Cina meridionale. E’ qui che la Cina ha iniziato il suo inesorabile percorso di crescita e cambiamento economico-sociale. E’ qui che l’industria internazionale contemporanea ha cominciato...

La definizione di linee strategiche di politica per lo sviluppo industriale è da considerarsi una priorità nel guidare le scelte dei paesi in anni di pesante crisi economica e repentini cambiamenti strutturali. Questo volume, nato nel corso di un lungo progetto di ricerca, indica perché la salute rappresenta un punto di partenza fondamentale su cui...

Questo capitolo tratta della relazione tra partecipazione democratica nel processo di decision-making legato alla salute e necessità di acquisizione degli strumenti informativi indispensabili affinchè tale partecipazione possa avere luogo. In particolare, si suggerisce il concetto di "apprendimento relazionale", ossia di apprendimento attuato trami...

La letteratura sui processi di networking è vasta ed eterogenea. Al suo interno è possibile trovare lavori sui pro e i contro della cooperazione fra imprese, sui vantaggi e i problemi delle cooperazioni università-impresa , oppure sulla necessità di favorire una connessione simultanea tra università, imprese e governo – il cosiddetto modello della...

Negli ultimi anni, la genetica è diventata una delle priorità di molti programmi pubblici a livello regionale, nazionale ed internazionale. Lo stesso vale per l’Emilia Romagna, che è fra le regioni più economicamente sviluppate d’Italia. L’Emilia Romagna è caratterizzata da un’antica tradizione manifatturiera, dalla presenza di numerose piccole e m...

In recent years the contraposition between basic and applied research or between science and technology has become rather vague. The new innovation path is less linear, socially dispersed and trans-disciplinary. For this reason, in some fields also basic research has proved to be fundamental for the development of new technologies and the growth of...

Many European countries are facing new competitive pressures by countries such as China or India. In this context, Italy seems to be squeezed between these new competitors specialised on traditional sectors and the difficulties of entering new high tech industries. This paper focuses on the strategic industrial policy options that Italy may have to...

Clusters are found in a wide variety of traditional industries, and both the agglomeration and location of fi rms in the manufacturing sector are frequently studied by students of industrial policy. Among the industries of the so-called ‘new economy’, however, there seems to be a paradox. On the one hand, high-technology fi rms are knowledge-based;...

Applying a strategic decision-making perspective on the economics of business, we suggest that a competitive locality in the health industry is one that, relative to other localities, is effective in: (1) providing the healthcare that enables everyone to participate fully in the democratic development of the locality; (2) providing the healthcare t...

Questo capitolo introduce i principali elementi che hanno caratterizzato lo sviluppo economico del Guangdong, oggi una tra le province più prospere e dinamiche della Cian. L'obiettivo è duplice: prima di tutto tracciare un profilo delle trasformazioni economiche che hanno interessato il Guangdong negli ultimi vent'anni; in secondo luogo fornire un'...

El mayor interés està dato para los sistemas productivos locales y los distritos industriales de las regiones italianas. La intuiciòn a ser desarrollada en los capìtulos siguientes, es que esa similitud debe ser chequeada, y que ella puede ser una fuente de amenaza a largo plazo, asì como también de oportunidades para los intercambios y la colabora...

A partire dagli anni Settanta la letteratura internazionale che concentrata la propria attenzione sulle dinamiche di sviluppo industriale iniziava ad accogliere alcune nuove intuizioni in materia di governo e organizzazione della produzione. Tale cambio di prospettiva fu ispirato dalla crisi dei modelli consolidati e dalle esperienze delle diverse...

Questo capitolo è dedicato all'industria manifatturiera del Guangdong, e si concentra in particolare sulla sua interessante geografia della produzione . Una geografia indubbiamente complessa da comprendere che però, anche ad una prima lettura, si caratterizza per un elevato numero di agglomerazioni territoriali di imprese (cluster). A dire il vero...

Health care is often regarded as a priority, as suggested by the resources allocated to it in many countries. The proportion of GDP spent on health in 1998 was 12.9% in the US, for example, 10.35% in Germany, 9.3% in France and 9.3% in Canada (OECD, 2001). However, it is not always clear what it is about health that is significant; why does health...

Questo capitolo è dedicato all'industria manifatturiera del Guangdong, e si concentra in particolare sulla sua interessante geografia della produzione . Una geografia indubbiamente complessa da comprendere che però, anche ad una prima lettura, si caratterizza per un elevato numero di agglomerazioni territoriali di imprese (cluster). A dire il vero...

Nell'arco delle ultime tre decadi il dibattito sui distretti industriali si è progressivamente ampliato seguendo sentieri molto diversi, che in molti casi hanno comportato una ridefinizione dell'oggetto di analisi. Si parla quindi non solo più di distretti industriali strictu sensu fedeli alla connotazione ideal-tipica stilizzata dalla "scuola ital...

(Abstract) Le piccole e medie imprese sono oggi oggetto di un’ampia riflessione non solo da parte degli studiosi di economia industriale, ma anche da parte dei governi e delle istituzioni internazionali impegnate nella definizione e nell’attuazione delle politiche di sviluppo industriale. In questo quadro è ormai consolidata la convinzione che prom...

Il capitolo analizza le piccole imprese in alcuni paesi del Sud-est asiatico (Tailandia, Malesia, Singapore, Filippine, Indonesia e Vietnam), evidenziando anche processi di clustering e networking, nonchè i principali ostacoli allo sviluppo delle piccole e medie imprese.

Questa analisi delle piccole imprese in Estremo Oriente non serve solo per colmare un vuoto descrittivo rispetto ad un fenomeno tantorilevante come lo sviluppo delle picocle imprese locali nei paesi di un'area che si caratterizza per incredibili tassi di sviluppo e su come quei governi affrontino le problematiche della crescita di queste imprese. L...

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between health and development, and the role of what we call "relational learning" as a facilitator of democratic participation in health. In this work, development is defined as a process aimed at increasing the well-being of a community, as democratically determined by the community itself. Health has a...