The Evolution of Oligopoly in a Mature Industry: Concentration and Delocalization in the European White Goods Sector in the Last Thirty Years

Nearly half a century ago, white goods industry born and became one of the main propulsion engines for western Europe economies, making profits robust and contributing to their development, in which Italy played a substantial role within principal producers, especially from the after the second postwar period to the 1980s. Despite years of richness, the white goods market is undergoing dramatic change. As a result, players in the industry, particularly mid-sized European companies, have faced massive challenges, due to a growing wave of competition. While these firms are struggling with falling margins in saturated markets, Asian players and few big western giants (Electrolux, Bosch Siemens, Whirpool) have been able to significantly expand their position through a relentless acquisition and mergers policy. At first, the main objective of this sector study is to investigate the deep dynamics that affected European firms' A&Ms decisions, which made this industry's concentration and competition as fierce as today. Moreover, we will focus on how enter and efficiently survive in a mature sector as domestic appliances, controlled by few huge colossuses which dominate the market with a large brand extension. Successively, we will direct our gaze towards the evolution of intra-European market relations and production geography. In fact, Eastern-European emerging countries (Poland, Russia, Hungary + Turkey) are replacing historical western producing countries and also white appliances industry's pioneers (Germany, Italy, Spain, UK). Lastly, we will pay close attention to the case of Italy and why, once again in this sector, our country didn't succeed in overcoming national boundaries, because of the lack of a rooted managerial culture, as US and Germany possess. This debate will also give us the tools to discuss recent events and current issues that has not been yet investigated in detail.