Spatial Agglomeration and Business Groups: New Evidence from Italian Industrial Districts

This paper is a first attempt to analyse the relationship between spatial agglomeration and firms’ organizational structures. It takes advantage of a new and large data set at firm and business group level that allows one to analyse the differences in the presence and characteristics of business groups between districts and non-district areas. Overall, the results confirm the hypothesis that spatial agglomeration of business activities influences firms’ organization. Groups are more widespread in industrial districts than in non-district areas; moreover, groups in industrial districts are less diversified and more spatially concentrated than groups outside industrial districts.