Native and Immigrant Entrepreneurship

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Simone Guercini, Gabi Dei Ottati, Loretta Baldassar, Graeme Johanson

   Pages 1-6

3. Liabilities of Native and Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the Processes of Globalization

   • Simone Guercini, Gabi Dei Ottati, Loretta Baldassar, Graeme Johanson

   Pages 7-29

4. Chinese Immigration to Italy and Economic Relations with the Homeland: A Multiscalar Perspective

   • Eduardo Barberis, Alberto Violante

   Pages 31-52

5. A Social Accounting Matrix for Prato: Interrelating the Chinese Migrant Community and the Provincial Economy

   • Paola Biasi, Stefano Rosignoli

   Pages 53-78

6. Ethnography of the Fast Fashion Community: Chinese Entrepreneurs in Prato

   • Stefano Becucci

   Pages 79-96

7. Italian-Schooled Chinese Migrant Youth in Prato: The Liability of Outsidership and Social Identity Formation

   • Adua Paciocco, Loretta Baldassar

   Pages 97-113

8. Smartphones and Outsidership in Prato’s Small Business Community

   • Graeme Johanson, Francesco Beghelli, Anja Fladrich

   Pages 115-132

9. Liabilities of Foreignness and Outsidership in the Evolution of Immigrant Chinese Entrepreneurship

   • Simone Guercini, Matilde Milanesi

   Pages 133-148

10. Liabilities in Prato’s Industrial District: An Analysis of Italian and Chinese Firm Failures

    • Luciana Lazzeretti, Francesco Capone

    Pages 149-167

11. The Mechanism of Sustained Immigrant Entrepreneurship: Wenzhounese Immigrants in Italy

    • Yili Zhang, Min Zhang

    Pages 169-187

12. Understanding Chinese Immigrants in Prato’s Industrial District: Benefits to Local Entrepreneurs

    • Xander Ong, Susan Freeman

    Pages 189-207

13. Concluding Remarks: The Benefits of Overcoming Local Liabilities

    • Simone Guercini, Gabi Dei Ottati, Loretta Baldassar, Graeme Johanson

    Pages 209-217

This book adopts a multidisciplinary approach to the issue of “local liabilities”, drawing on close analysis of the case of Chinese migrants and the Italian industrial district of Prato in order to elucidate the problems, or liabilities, that derive from the separation between natives and immigrants in local systems of people and firms. Insights are offered from a variety of disciplines, including business and industrial economics, anthropology, and sociology, thereby providing a framework through which to view the problems and also identifying potential pathways for their evolution and resolution. The focus on local liabilities affords an original perspective on the nature of globalization and highlights salient aspects of native and immigrant entrepreneurship. Globalization not only creates "bridges" between distant places but also changes the face of businesses and socioeconomic systems at the local level, where local liabilities may emerge when two or more separate communities (of persons and firms) exist. The greater the separation between the communities, the greater the local liabilities. In offering diverse perspectives on this relatively neglected aspect of globalization, the book will be of interest to a wide readership.

• Local liability
• Immigrant entrepreneurship
• Chinese immigrant firms
• Liability of foreignness
• Liability of outsidership
• Prato industrial district
• Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurship
• Migrant entrepreneurship in Italy
• Wenzhou migrants in Italy

• Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

  Simone Guercini, Gabi Dei Ottati

• School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia School of Social Sciences, CRAWLEY, Australia

  Loretta Baldassar

• Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Caulfield East, Australia

  Graeme Johanson

Simone Guercini is a Professor of Management at the University of Florence and visiting professor at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business. His research interests include business marketing, heuristics in business, entrepreneurship in communities, and internationalization, with a special focus on the Italian fashion industry. Simone received his PhD in economics from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa. 


Gabi Dei Ottati is a Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Florence and a member of the European Research Centre on Regional and Local Development. Her main research interests include industrial organization and economic development, with a special focus on Italy and industrial districts. Having collaborated for many years with Giacomo Becattini, the revitalizer of the Marshallian industrial district concept, she is part of the Florence school of local development. 


Loretta Baldassar is a Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia, and Adjunct Principal Research Fellow at the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University. Her research interests focus on transnational migrants, families, and caregiving, including the question of generations. Loretta received her PhD from the University of Western Australia. 


Graeme Johanson is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Monash University. His research interests include social informatics, virtual communities, and e-democracy, with a focus on migration and transnationalism. Graeme received his PhD in economics from Monash University. 

Policies and ethics