Full Description
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 (ofpersons 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.
Contents
Introduction.- Liabilities of native and immigrant entrepreneurship in the process of globalization.- Chinese immigration to Italy and economic relations with the homeland: A multiscalar perspective.- A social accounting matrix for Prato: Interrelating the Chinese migrant community and the provincial economy.- Ethnography of the fast fashion community: Chinese entrepreneurs in Prato.- Italian-schooled Chinese migrant youth in Prato: The liability of outsidership and social identity formation.- Smartphones and outsidership in Prato's small business community.- Liabilities of foreignness and of outsidership in the evolution of immigrant Chinese entrepreneurship.- Liabilities in the Prato's industrial district: An analysis of Italian and Chinese firm failures.- The mechanism of sustained immigrant entrepreneurship: Wenzhounese immigrants in Italy.- Understanding Chinese immigrants in Prato's industrial district: Benefits to local entrepreneurs.- Concluding remarks: The benefits of overcoming local liabilities.
