Large Firms and Subcontracting Relations in Commercial Aircraft

This article intends: 1) to analyse the restructuring processes of the subcontracting system undertaken by Alenia, the Italian state-owned aeronautics company; 2) to investigate its impact on subcontracting firms located in Campania, a region in Southern Italy, where the production of aerostructures for civil aviation is concentrated. The analysis is based on information from: a) various interviews with Alenia’s procurement division managers; b) a survey of twenty subcontracting firms, located in Campania.