Mafia and entrepreneurship: The “Foggia” case

Understanding the “grey area” in criminal contexts, where mafia and legitimate players (politicians, public administrators, professionals, entrepreneurs) meet, is a key topic to be investigated in less traditional criminal contexts because of the dynamic nature of relationships, roles, and power mechanisms between the players mentioned above. We investigate this phenomenon in the Apulia region, specifically in Foggia, an often-overlooked mafia context dominated by a peculiar criminal organization known as the “Società Foggiana”. We explore the relationship mafia-entrepreneurship through a multiple case study approach, comparing three key investigations on the Società Foggiana, from which we extrapolate different players’ (criminal and legitimate actors) roles and competencies, the profiles of the entrepreneurs involved, and power dynamics between the mafia and other legitimate players. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the Società Foggiana as a still traditional mafia, based on the use of extortion and violence against oppressed and vexed entrepreneurs.