We study how small and medium sized subcontracting firms are evolving as globalization and new technologies reconfigure Italian industrial districts. Within this transformation, local subcontractors are particularly at risk and, in order to remain competitive, need to diversify their customer portfolios, offer unique, higher quality products, achieve ever higher flexibility and engage in durable relationships across global supply chains. Developing design and marketing capabilities that support such innovative strategies is core to subcontractors’ survival. We apply cluster analysis to a sample of 417 North East Italian subcontractors and classify them on the basis of their design and marketing capabilities. We identify 4 profiles of subcontractors: developed, developing, question mark and traditional. Building on this classification, we use data from 10 in-depth subcontractors’ case studies to develop a model of how subcontractors’ capabilities co-evolve overtime. We identify a typical subcontractors’ evolutionary pattern, showing how the transition from one profile to another takes place. We discuss our findings’ implications in the light of the resource-based and knowledge-based views of the firm.
Knowledge and capabilities in subcontractors’ evolution, the Italian case
CAMUFFO, ARNALDO;
2007
Abstract
We study how small and medium sized subcontracting firms are evolving as globalization and new technologies reconfigure Italian industrial districts. Within this transformation, local subcontractors are particularly at risk and, in order to remain competitive, need to diversify their customer portfolios, offer unique, higher quality products, achieve ever higher flexibility and engage in durable relationships across global supply chains. Developing design and marketing capabilities that support such innovative strategies is core to subcontractors’ survival. We apply cluster analysis to a sample of 417 North East Italian subcontractors and classify them on the basis of their design and marketing capabilities. We identify 4 profiles of subcontractors: developed, developing, question mark and traditional. Building on this classification, we use data from 10 in-depth subcontractors’ case studies to develop a model of how subcontractors’ capabilities co-evolve overtime. We identify a typical subcontractors’ evolutionary pattern, showing how the transition from one profile to another takes place. We discuss our findings’ implications in the light of the resource-based and knowledge-based views of the firm.
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