Innovation capabilities in small-medium autocomponents: evidence from Italy

Giuseppe Calabrese

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2001, vol. 1, issue 4, 471-489

Abstract: Small-medium firms represent more than 90% of Italian firms, 50% of Italian production and two thirds of employment and they need support in innovation processes especially in known technology. The small-medium firm, in fact, operates chiefly in medium to low technology sectors, but cannot for this reason reject innovation. Suppliers are often too small to make the necessary investments in training, computer systems, research and development to make an effective partnership with final producers. Within this scenario the behaviour of the small-medium car supplier is quite different, vertical disintegration, reorganisation of the supply base, globalisation and the development of buyer-supplier relationships have undoubtedly changed the role of suppliers in the carmaker's strategies.

Keywords: innovative activities; small firms; specialised suppliers. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=53 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijatma:v:1:y:2001:i:4:p:471-489

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().