Technological Innovation and Industrial Marketing of Printed Circuit Manufacturers

This study as to illustrate the first results of an empirical research is to evaluate changes in the structure of supply and demand that are made, from the early years four- twenty-four in the Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) sector of the Castelfidardo production district. The aim of this work is to examine how companies producing printed circuits, formulated new competitive strategies based on the introduction of important processes of restructuring of production systems and also, and perhaps mainly, on defining new relationships between customers and suppliers ( business to business) in national and international markets.

This survey proposes to bring important elements of knowledge on the strategies of the companies which, while remaining "implanted on the territory", innovate their activities of project and marketing to be able to operate in the field of the under- international trade (VARALDO, 1995).

The advantage of taking into account the companies supplying printed circuits, located in a given industrial district, is motivated by the observation that the most competitive companies of the whole Italian sector are precisely those that are part of territorial production systems. historically well defined (Brianza, near Milan, Castelfidardo, Genova, Vicenza).

The choice to analyze the electronic pole of Castelfidardo is justified by the determining role it has had on the industrial evolution of the entire Marche region. The important development of the printed circuit suppliers has, in fact, favored the establishment of many different client industries, first in Castelfidardo and then gradually in the surrounding territories. Electronic Product Development.

5 Thanks to this quantitative development, the entire Marches industrial system has become able to compete in globalized markets, even in newly established high tech high technology sectors (household appliances, lighting, telecommunications, video communications, industrial automation, etc.) besides the already established traditional sectors (clothing, furniture, etc.).

6 On the basis of these considerations, it seemed natural to us to investigate whether the new competition methods, present in many of the Marche's customer industries, can still lead to the purchase of printed circuits exclusively from suppliers. local.

7 This research highlights just as well the new problems stemming from customer-supplier relations, as the evolutionary dynamics that characterize the relations between the different electronic sectors mentioned above (household appliances, lighting, telecommunications, video communications, industrial automation, etc.). ).
8 In addition, to obtain convincing results, we analyzed the new competitive methods of a sample of companies that are part of the "client" industries and are located in the production district of Castelfidardo and in the Marches. This allowed us to better understand the issues and possible evolutionary dynamics of the Marche electronic system.

This study is part of the research that, in interpreting the transformations of industrial districts, is based on the analysis of the new competitive behavior of the subjects, that is to say, "district enterprises", rather than on the determination of modern forms of interaction between firms and the local socio-cultural and institutional context 
In our study, the name of the production center appears to be the most appropriate for identifying a certain number of companies located in a defined geographical area which, during the 1970s, was in the form of an "industrial district". but during the last thirty years it has gradually lost the characteristics typical of the Marshallian industrial district.

11 BECATTINI (2000), while arguing that the district system evolves with significant deviations from the ideal model, considers that the "industrial district concept" can be applied even if the typical factors that characterize it do not occur. would not all be present.

12But it seems to us that this geographical area has continued to develop industrially, even though it has undeniably lost the typical characteristics of the Marshallian industrial district. The economic development of this area has in fact progressed thanks to the establishment of numerous companies belonging to different technological production sectors. Many elements that are part of the industrial district have disappeared, including the presence of frequent cooperative relationships, in the same area, between competing companies, between them and their customers or suppliers. In addition, the "industrial atmosphere" that could have allowed even the weakest

13 Regarding the methodology of this study, it should be noted that the research activity was carried out in the field, through the systematic analysis of many real situations, within the companies themselves, some of which some represent important research laboratories. For this research, we therefore adopted the inductive method with successive empirical verification.

14 In the field of economic studies, an author considers that, in the district, community and businesses still tend to "interconnect each other" (Becattini, 1991); but business economists argue that we must carry out research activities on local production systems because this approach can identify issues, success factors and the evolutionary dynamics of the business district.

This research aims to analyze cactéristiques that can highlight:the modalities that characterized the development of the industries of the pole of Castelfidardo during its transformation from mono to polysectorial;the role that client companies currently have in the development of Castelfidardo's electronic printed circuit sector;the degree of entrepreneurial capacity within the industrial districts, taking into account the layout of the property, the managerial level and the organizational structures of the companies producing printed circuits;the evolution of know-how within PMI organization structures (buyers and sellers) located in local production systems, using the knowledge management analysis perspective . All this with the aim of highlighting whether, between ICT (Information, Communication, Technology) and districts, there is or is not the relationship that in the most recent studies, is considered particularly interesting to analyze the strategic development pathways. high-tech clusters.This study is likely to provide useful information to public, national and regional operators, who would feel the need to formulate appropriate industrial policies to support well-defined geographic areas or electronic production hubs ( district specific policies ) or many specific industries ( industry specific policies ), so that high-tech sectors continue to present supply structures (number of companies, strategies pursued by different companies) competitive with similar structures in other countries industrialized countries, including those of recent industrialization (China, India).