Supply chain cooperation in industrial districts: A simulation analysis

In the past few years the literature on supply chain management has widely emphasized that cooperation among supply chain (SC) firms is a key source of competitive advantage. This paper explores the topic in a particular context, i.e. the industrial district (ID), which constitutes a specific production model where complex SC networks can be identified. SC cooperation may take on several forms in IDs and may produce several benefits (e.g. upgrading quality and reducing costs) so this paper also analyzes the benefits of a specific form of SC cooperation in different competitive scenarios and for diverse ID organizational structures. An agent-based model of SC cooperation in IDs has been developed and a simulation analysis carried out. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.