Internazionalizzazione delle reti di fornitura: imprese distrettuali e non distrettuali a confronto

The paper compares the supply network strategies of ID (district firms) and non-ID (non-district firms) with a dual aim: to provide an overview of emerging strategies and to identify similarities and differences between business models. The quantitative analysis developed in the paper is based on the TeDIS (Technologies in Distributed Intelligence Systems) survey conducted on forty-five leading Italian districts and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) located outside the districts in made in Italy sectors, encompassing a total of eight hundred Italian firms. The results of the analysis show that there are more similarities than differences in the supply networks approach of ID and non-ID companies. While the ID firms rely more on local systems in terms of supply networks, the non- ID firms have invested also at the national level. The global geographical extension of supply networks emphasizes the ID companies’ search for efficiency and value-added competences. Non-ID firms have a more hierarchical approach to internationalization than ID firms, but the differences tend to diminish as the size of the companies increases.