Territorial servitization and new local productive configurations: the case of the textile industrial district of Prato

This paper addresses territorial servitization in manufacturing systems of small and medium-sized enterprises, introducing a framework for the interpretation of changes in local productive configurations and the assessment of territorial servitization trajectories. It includes three main variables: multiplicity of know-hows, transaction costs and the entrepreneurial drive. Moreover, it proposes a mixed methodology that elaborates proxies of these variables for empirical analysis. The methodology is tested by investigating the changing features of an archetypal case of Italian industrial district, the textile district of Prato, throughout the period 2005–13. Different scenarios seem to open up, highlighting the opportunities and difficulties of transition to strong territorial servitization trajectories.