Information Structure and Behaviour of a Textile Industrial District

This article presents a model of the structure of the information flows that underlie the creation of production chains between thousands of small textile firms located in Prato, central Italy. Contrary to most of the textile industry of Western Europe & North America, Prato did not die out once average salaries in the region rose toward the world's highest. The reason is that Prato was able to switch from a competitive advantage based on low prices to a competitive advantage based on the aesthetic features & variety of textiles. Analysis of the structure of production chains can explain the performance of this distributed production system throughout its evolution. The model reconstructs interactions of ten types of Pratese firms from 1946 to 1993 on a scale of 1:1. 1 Table, 11 Figures, 1 Animation, 52 References. Adapted from the source document.