To read this content please select one of the options below:

The rise of the Chinese regional cluster specializing in fashion in Lombardy : An evolutionary analysis

Andrea Ganzaroli (Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan, Milan, Italy)
Ivan De Noni (Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan, Milan, Italy)

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy

ISSN: 1750-6204

Article publication date: 14 August 2017

314

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the rise of a Chinese fashion cluster in Lombardy.

Design/methodology/approach

Three approaches and descending levels of analysis are integrated: a quantitative analysis based on demographic data to highlight the evolution of the regional distribution of the Chinese community and Chinese entrepreneurship in Lombardy; a literature review to reconstruct the historical development of Chinatown in Milan; and few in-depth interviews and a survey to represent how the Chinese living in Chinatown perceive the changing role of the enclave.

Findings

The Chinese in Lombardy are rising as a regional ethnic fashion cluster. This cluster is rising out of three major drivers: ethnic social capital as a source of community-based entrepreneurship; the crisis of traditional industrial districts in the 1990s as a trigger opportunity; and the trans-regionalization of the fashion industry as a main driver of its current development. The rise of this cluster is bottom-up.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are based on a single case study. There are evidences showing that the Chinese are rising as regional and/or inter-regional clusters in other institutional settings. However, this study may benefit from comparisons with other institutional and national contexts.

Practical implications

Chinese entrepreneurship may foster regional growth as a complementary source of cultural variety, internationalization and multi-regional co-specialization.

Social implications

Entrepreneurship may foster social cohesion and collaboration.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to existing literature by proposing a would-be theory of the evolution of regional ethnic clusters.

Keywords

Citation

Ganzaroli, A. and De Noni, I. (2017), "The rise of the Chinese regional cluster specializing in fashion in Lombardy : An evolutionary analysis", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 491-513. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-11-2015-0052

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles