What Lies Beneath the Internationalization of Firms in a Regional Innovation System?

Abstract

The aim of the chapter is to identify the internationalization models of SME industrial district firms within a very integrated and dynamic Regional Innovation System (RIS) of Italy. By doing so, we investigate which are the strategies of firms embedded in a RIS to access global suppliers and markets. Accordingly, this chapter explores the role of SMEs firms' dynamic capabilities, its linkage with the industry investments in ICT (information and communication technologies) and the impact of the utilization of regional knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in shaping the degree of internationalization of local firms.

The analysis is based on a survey addressed during 2004 to entrepreneurs or managers of a sample of 125 SMEs firms operating in 7 industrial districts (biomedical, ceramics, shipbuilding, footwear, textile, plastics and packaging) of the Emilia Romagna.

The results coming from a structural equation model revealed factors that impact on firms' degree of internationalization in the input (relocalization of foreign purchases through global value chains) and in the output dimension (export sales). Some interesting insights on what lies beneath the internationalization of firms in a very dynamic regional innovation system like that one of Emilia Romagna are provided.

Citation

Sedita, S.R., Belussi, F. and Fiscato, G. (2011), "What Lies Beneath the Internationalization of Firms in a Regional Innovation System?", Geisler Asmussen, C., Pedersen, T., Devinney, T.M. and Tihanyi, L. (Ed.) Dynamics of Globalization: Location-Specific Advantages or Liabilities of Foreignness? (Advances in International Management, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 299-326. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1571-5027(2011)0000024019