International Competitiveness of SMEs: the case of a textile-clothing sector company in Puglia

The small size and the production specialization in low innovation sectors of Italian enterprises, low R&D investments - both public and private - make the Italian economy, and above all the Southern one, particularly subject to international competition. The wider is the market, the higher is the threshold of survival for enterprises and thus less efficient ones exit. The progressive enlargement of markets generates positive effects on dynamic and high productivity firms that, although witness a decrease in national market sales, can enter foreign markets off-shoring some activities. Taking into account that Rumania is a very important commercial partner to Italy, and in particular to Apulia, one intends to verify if stronger links between these two regions can generate benefits or costs for traditional sectors enterprises. The aim of the work is to show that SMÈs competitiveness can increase delocalizing some phases of the production process. This paper is twofold: in the first part there is a theoretical review of the internationalization of firms; while in the second part we analyze a study case of an Apulian firm belonging to the textile and apparel sector.