From local agglomeration to industrial ecosystems. A case study from Abruzzo

Industrial clusters have played a significant role in the Italian economic growth. Many prestigious scholars, during the last century, argued about local industrial agglomeration emphasizing social, innovative financial, and organizational effects for involved firms. Recently, in the age of “globalization”, industrial clusters have shown clear signs of crisis, main of this related to an inertia, facing with new international competitors. The renewed interest in localized spatial growth involve a variety of disciplines. The Eco-efficiency may be investigated as a new way to gain competitiveness and sustainability for existing Italian clusters, following the example of North-European regions and capitalizing its own historical characteristics. This paper will be focused on the analysis of Abruzzo’s regional manufacturing system and the identification of local potential case study, where analyse main production processes and most significant environmental burdens in order to determine possible solutions, in the perspective of Industrial Ecosystems.