REINFORCING INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS: NEED FOR A STRUCTURED APPROACH

A specific character of the European industrial system is the presence of many “groups of Small-Mid Enterprises – SME”, often denoted “cluster”, “poles”, “networks” or “districts”. For a long time, these groups of SMEs represented a reason of strength. Recently, their robustness has been affected by hard changes in the labour and final product markets, and their difficult situation widely reflects on the whole socio-economic context. A deep analysis of the districts’ crisis is mandatory, but evident suggestions for a clear approach to the crucial evaluation of the districts’ evolution is still lacking. This paper will give a presentation of a new methodology for the performance evaluation of SMEs networks, on which the EU-funded CODESNET project is based.