The role of Chinese SMEs in Italian industrial districts

Drawing from literature on immigrant entrepreneurship, local production systems and the concept of embeddedness, this paper aims to explore the role of small and medium sized firms established by Chinese immigrants in some Italian industrial districts. In particular, it highlights how this ethnic group is strictly involved and active in current changes into the district supply chain of the garment sector, notwithstanding the classical culturalist interpretation of immigrant’s firms which depicts Chinese businesses as self-referential and endogenous ethnic economies. Results indicate that Chinese firms do both create independent ethnic supply chains and collaborate with local firms, helping them to face today global competition through a sort of “in-loco internationalization”. In this case, actual inter-firm and social relations' patterns seem to be a consequence of structural endogenous and exogenous changes in district labor markets and value chains.