The Development of Smes: Policies, Actors and Problems
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The development of SMEs: policies, actors and problems A comparison between Japan, Argentina and Italy 2 3 Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” Dipartimento di Sociologia Ambasciata della Repubblica Argentina Repubblica Argentina The organization of the seminar was possible thanks to a Japan Foundation Grant for Intellectual Exchange Conferences, the generous support of the Istituto Italo-Latino Americano, and the Patronage of the Embassy of Argentina in Italy. Co-organized by: Dipartimento di Economia, Università “La Sapienza” Roma; Dipartimento di Biologia e Economia Agro-industriale, Università di Udine; Dipartimento di Sociologia, Università di Napoli Federico II, and the support of the Dipartimento Ricerche Economiche e Sociali, Università di Cagliari and Fundación Garantizar. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS p. 5 P. Piacentini (University “La Sapienza”, Rome) Introduction General economic aspects p. 9 P. Bianchi, S. Labory (Università di Ferrara) Industrial development and institutional instability: reflections on Argentina p. 23 K. Toyama (Tokyo Metropolitan University) Path destruction and path creation for sustainable regional development. A comparative study of industrial agglomeration between Japan and Italy p. 41 F. Porta (National University of Quilmes) Argentina specialization and participation to international trade: challenges for the policies Industrial policies for SMEs in Argentina, Japan and Italy p. 53 M. Kulfas (Banco de la Nación Argentina) Tensions and dilemmas of industrial policies for SMEs in Argentina p. 79 A. Imamura (Kyushu Institute for Economic Research, Fukuoka) Revitalization of SMEs and regional economies: the case of Kyushu p. 85 K. Yahata (Chuo University, Tokyo) A SMEs promotion policy by a local government and its results: the case of Sumida Ward, Tokyo p. 91 E. Barbieri, M. R. Di Tommaso, L. Rubini (University of Ferrara) Local development policy in Guangdong province, People’s Republic of China. A focus on the specialised towns program Sociological aspects and implications p. 113 E. Peruzzotti (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) Accountability struggles in democratic Argentina: civic engagement from the human rights movement to the Kirchner administration p. 133 G.F. Bottazzi (University of Cagliari) Torn between breaks and continuity: SMEs and Italian development patterns 5 INTRODUCTION P. Piacentini (University “La Sapienza”, Rome) The papers now available in this collection include a revised selection of the contributions which were presented at the international seminar on “The development of SMEs: policies, actors and problems. A comparison between Japan, Argentina and Italy”, which was held in Rome in January 2010. For acknowledgement and thanks to the sponsoring organizations which have allowed that occasion through funding, hospitality and other support, we refer to the mentions in page 2. A “trilateral” conference, gathering academic researchers and policy operators from three countries, so distant for geographical location, developmental history, and socio- economic characteristics, might have appeared a somewhat extravagant initiative. However, we all face a historical contingency in the world development, when the frame of “global” competition and increasing mutual interdependence are imposing challenges, and renewed call for policy vision, aiming at preserving and improving possibly patterns of specialization and regional potentials capable to assure sustainable subsistence within the international contexts. The need for “regional” and “Industrial” policies, although with a wide scope for differentiation of instruments and targeted environments, should emerge as one common, and still valid, option for supporting the resilience of the economic potential and of the welfare of the communities involved at the regional level. This statement might appear in contrast with a vision, which has often prevailed in the academy and policy prescription, according to which national support of localized “industrial”, or otherwise specific, contexts, would interfere with the correct functioning of allocations by the “invisible hand” of the Market, which is deemed in the longer run to assure improvement of efficiency and welfare overall. In this moment, when the “real economy side” impacts of the crisis originated from an unregulated financial sphere are still hardly striking the economies of more mature countries, we should be however aware of the potential damages of the “failures” of the market. On the other hand, our contributors from Latin America, and in particular from Argentina in this case, should be fully conscious, out of the hard experiences of their more, and less, recent history, of the shortcomings of both, opposite approaches to policy, a “closed” protection of a national boundary before, and, later, the unregulated liberalization of the operation and options for capital inflows often of a speculative origin. The convenors of the conference had called for a priority interest to be given to empirical accounts referring to problems faced by realities involving a relevant role of smaller enterprise (SMEs), in local employment activation, and the welfare support of the communities. We have however included in the selection contributions dealing with more general, macro-political frames, in particular for the illustration of the recent history of the Argentine’s context. We hope that all readers may find sources for instructive reflexion, on how the political regimes, the macroeconomic conditions, and the general vitality of a “microeconomic” texture, appear to have been closely interconnected, in the passages through often drammatic circumstances. The renewed vitality of the Argentinean economy, in which, within, but also out of, its traditional specialization in the farming and stock-breeding, appear to connect with new spaces and roles for the SMEs, capable of covering “niches” of productive and trade-servicing activities. “Agri-food” appears thus to become a source for a wider range of value adding activities in the local contexts, no more limited to the export business of mainly “unprocessed” agricultural staples. The opportunities offered by the widening of the “captive” markets, through the process of trade liberalization within the “Mercosur” area integration, offer further spaces for specialized and export-oriented SMEs, out of the past subsistence upon an “asphictic” domestic demand. One of the contributions 6 from the Argentinean side illustrates, with rich detail, on the frames of a new industrial policy to support these potentially positive developments. The three contributions selected for the case of Japan are, otherwise, all centered on the accounts of “local” or regional experiences, and of the challenges for a policy action aimed at preservation and innovation of the traditions of competence, manufacturing excellence and “community visions” which have been characteristic of the particular “manufacturing culture” of this country. The three contributions appear to be of complementary interest, since each of them insists on a particular level of a “local” reality: a) that of a “ward” within the Tokyo metropolitan area, traditionally a ground for small scale enterprise and craft production and the related trades; that of a “specialized industrial district” in the provincial area, with a tradition of excellence in the manufacturing of a particular product-line (eyewear); that encompassing the whole size of a regional entity, coinciding in the case with that of a greater island ( Kyushu) , which has pursued an effort of transformation and updating of its economic structure, from the traditional skills into the applications on the advanced front of the Information technologies, in the attempt at preserving at valorizing its base of technical and “human” skill. The second among these contributions has a particular interest, in its “twin industry” comparative approach, where the Japanese district for eyeware industry (Sabae, Niigata prefecture) is put in comparison with parallel transformations of an Italian district with analogous specialization (Belluno, North-East Italy). Out of all the cases, the problems of competitive survival of SME’s in industrial districts of a “mature” country, vis- à-vis the rise on the market of new competitors—China obviously in the first place--- clearly come out. Downsizing, cases of “path-destruction” the concentration of activity in fewer, greater firms with capability for international operation and “brand” differentiation strategies at the higher ends of a quality chain, are described. But again, we believe that the main interest comes from the description of the detail of the policies, mobilizing funds and resources from the public bodies, research departments at the technical faculties of local universities, etc., in support to the entrepreneurial initiatives. The Italian model of manufacturing district and, more in general, the peculiarities of an industrial organization which still has the highest share of contribution to sale values and employment activation provided by the SMEs, is comprehensively presented in a contribution. The historical development, and the “rationale” of a system of networking of smaller firms within a vertically disintegrated value chain; its successes in a still recent past, and the signs for stagnation and outsourcing causing now a relative decline, of this model, are critically reported and commented. Fewer firms upgrading their supply content, and pursuing dimensions required for a visibility in international