Over the last 10 years, competitiveness at provincial level has been deeply investigated revealing how all the Provinces are not equally able to face the challenges that the “new competition” proposes but, rather, they fail in supplying both an exhaustive explanation and a suitable measure of their performances. So, throughout an adaptation of existing indices and an extension of them by means of the opinions of several experts, this paper aims both at creating an innovative provincial model to measure performances able to face global pressures (Political, Regulatory, Economic, Social, Technological) and at testing it empirically on the Italian context. The paper begins with a critical review of the concept of Provincial Competitiveness and performances. In a second phase we analyze problems involved in its performance measurement and results of the previous literature review are validated by means of 48 interviews to 3 groups of territorial stakeholders (entrepreneurs/Bodies, Academics and builders of attractiveness indices), thus allowing to return a complex framework of “drivers” and “indices” that, suitably assessed, build a new index of measure of provincial performances. Next, we interrogate the database of Italian Provinces using a set of indicators of provincial competitiveness and apply our model and index to Italian Provinces for comparison purpose. The application of the model shows that the nature of the relevant determinants of competitiveness has changed from being material and associated with the physical space to become immaterial and related to skills and competences of its actors and technological assets. This dematerialisation requires the development of new forms of county governance and competitive paths for the future. Finally, the paper outlines advantages this model can bring, further applications and relative limits of the research.
Towards an innovative provincial model of measure of performances and competitiveness: a ranking of Italian provinces
TARDIVO, Giuseppe;VIASSONE, Milena
2009-01-01
Abstract
Over the last 10 years, competitiveness at provincial level has been deeply investigated revealing how all the Provinces are not equally able to face the challenges that the “new competition” proposes but, rather, they fail in supplying both an exhaustive explanation and a suitable measure of their performances. So, throughout an adaptation of existing indices and an extension of them by means of the opinions of several experts, this paper aims both at creating an innovative provincial model to measure performances able to face global pressures (Political, Regulatory, Economic, Social, Technological) and at testing it empirically on the Italian context. The paper begins with a critical review of the concept of Provincial Competitiveness and performances. In a second phase we analyze problems involved in its performance measurement and results of the previous literature review are validated by means of 48 interviews to 3 groups of territorial stakeholders (entrepreneurs/Bodies, Academics and builders of attractiveness indices), thus allowing to return a complex framework of “drivers” and “indices” that, suitably assessed, build a new index of measure of provincial performances. Next, we interrogate the database of Italian Provinces using a set of indicators of provincial competitiveness and apply our model and index to Italian Provinces for comparison purpose. The application of the model shows that the nature of the relevant determinants of competitiveness has changed from being material and associated with the physical space to become immaterial and related to skills and competences of its actors and technological assets. This dematerialisation requires the development of new forms of county governance and competitive paths for the future. Finally, the paper outlines advantages this model can bring, further applications and relative limits of the research.
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