The Natuzzi Group and the Bari-Matera (Italy) upholstered furniture district. A case study of internationalisation in a traditional industry

Giovanni Barbiano di Belgiojoso (), Sara Colautti, Massimo Florio and Cristina Castelli
Additional contact information
Giovanni Barbiano di Belgiojoso: CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies, https://www.csilmilano.com
Cristina Castelli: Istituto nazionale per il Commercio Estero (ICE), http://www.ice.it/

Working Papers from CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies

Abstract: The case-study focuses on the strategies adopted by the Natuzzi Group, world leader of the upholstered furniture sector, located in the Bari-Matera district (Southern Italy), to face increasing global competition and on their effects. In particular we consider the modes and determinants of productive internationalisation, carried out since 2000 by Natuzzi in China, Brazil and Romania to produce middle-low end products. By improving the competitiveness of the price-sensitive segment, the strategy contributed to the successful expansion of the Group until 2002. However, high range products, manufactured in Italy, record decreasing sales especially on the US market, despite the companys efforts in R&D and marketing and its investments in information technology. Moreover, due to Natuzzi's considerable weight in the district, the Groups performance impacts on the network of subcontracting firms, where a restructuring process is underway, raising questions about the evolution of the district.

Keywords: Internationalisation; Industrial District; Subcontracting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F20 L14 R32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2008-06-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.csilmilano.com/docs/WP03_2009.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Natuzzi group and the Bari -Matera (Italy) upholstered furniture district: a case study of internationalisation in a traditional industry (2008)
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:mst:wpaper:200903

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Marinella Manghina ().