Project sheet
CALL: ERC-2024-COG (Call for Proposals for ERC Consolidator Grant) Type of Action: HORIZON-ERC
TITLE: Local Heroes, Global Impact: The Unsung Power of Micro and Small Enterprises in Global Value Chain Reconfiguration (acronym SOS-GVC)
DURATION: 5 years from 1/09/2025 to 31/08/2030
RESPONSIBLE: prof. Jacopo Canello
COORDINATOR: University of Parma
SCIENTIFIC AREA: Human, economic and social geography; Global Value Chains; Micro and Small Enterprises; Resilience, Regional Science
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) GOAL: Goal 9 Infrastructure, industrialization and innovation
DRAFT SITE: https://sos-gvc.eu/
Brief description
The project aims to study the still largely unexplored role of micro and small enterprises in the recent processes of transformation of global value chains, with particular regard to the implications of their strategic decisions in the local sphere.
The acronym SOS-GVC recalls the contribution of micro and small enterprises in "rescuing" and "sustaining" global value chains, facilitating the global reconfiguration of production processes and contributing to the relocation of production activities in Italy (reshoring) and Europe (nearshoring). This issue is crucial in the current European context, marked by the push toward the Open Strategic Autonomy strategy, which aims to make the European economy more resilient to economic and structural shocks.
Previous studies by Prof. Canello and his collaborators show that micro and small enterprises not only play an essential role in local development, but also significantly affect production dynamics globally. Although much of the scientific literature has focused on the dominant role of multinational corporations in global value chains, Prof. Canello's work highlights how micro and small enterprises can profoundly influence the evolution of these international networks, both directly and indirectly.
The project will examine the impact of these dynamics in a recent period characterized by multiple economic and structural shocks, such as the pandemic, rising trade tensions and international conflicts. On the one hand, the analysis will focus on the direct and indirect effects associated with the repatriation of relocated assets from micro and small enterprises directly involved in global value chains. On the other, risk prevention strategies in local supply networks and their effects on the resilience of the territories where these enterprises are located will be analyzed. The combined effect of these actions can increase the ability of economic systems to deal effectively with economic and structural shocks.
The researcher
After spending several years abroad, Jacopo Canello returned to Italy in 2022 to pursue his research at the University of Parma, in the Department of Economics and Management.
After graduating from the University of Padua and from Ca' Foscari University in Venice, he completed a Master of Science degree at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and a doctorate at the University of Queensland in Brisbane (Australia). He has done research in academic institutions such as the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the United States and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where he worked as Assistant Professor. For several years he also did research in Rome at SOSE, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Bank of Italy.
