Imprenditorialite aziende dellItalian style

Italian style firms operate in the Made in Italy industries adopting competitive strategies built on desing and production processes oriented to “beautiful and very well crafted”, on selective distribution and on communication systems which spread messages having highly symbolic content, leveraging on all those characters evoking the Italian style. The interest for this kind of firms derives form the evidence that they have the greater possibilities to compete successfully in the international environment and, therefore, to support the competitiveness of the Italian economic system. From a theoretical point of view, the choice to focus on a specific class of firms helps in building more solid theories on entrepreneurship.

The objective of the present article, using also the sample of approximately sixty firms, members of Altagamma, is a better understanding of entrepreneurship in Italian style firms. In order to do that, the first part is devoted to define idiosyncrasies both of the entrepreneurial formulas of these firms and of their entrepreneurs. Secondly the analysis goes thoroughly into the conditions which may help these firms in entering countries having high growth rates. Finally, the article proposes some conclusions on three elements which should characterize the transmission of the entrepreneurial vis to the young entrepreneurial generations: cultural ripening, international opening and managerial culture strengthening.

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