Abstract
This study aims at exploring the relationships, largely unexplored, connecting Adriano Olivetti's thought to the Italian local development "school" and specifically to Giorgio Fuà's and Giacomo Becattini's works. As a matter of fact, the Olivettian oeuvre shows a true and not negligible common ground with both Becattini's socio-communitarian approach and Fuà's emphasis on the quality of entrepreneurial capabilities in triggering processes of local and industrial development. Focusing on Olivetti's political, social, economic thought as a basis for his conception and action about the communitarian enterprise and the community, we will come to discuss the intersections with a few key concepts in Fuà and Becattini on local development and systems of SMEs. We will conclude with some suggestions on contemporary research on local development.