In recent decades, industrial districts (ID) have experienced intense
delocalisation to low-cost countries, with implications for IDs’ internal structure.
Recent studies, however, highlight the advantages of relocalising manufacturing
in home countries. This paper investigates ID firms’ production-location strategies
and backshoring decisions. The results from a survey of 259 firms in eight Italian
IDs show that firms that delocalise production do not change their strategies over
time and make limited recourse to backshoring. ID production is still important to
guarantee product quality and access to specialised know-how.
