Innovation in tradition-based firms: dynamic knowledge for international competitiveness

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of innovation and internationalization for small- and medium enterprises (SMEs) and at testing it on tradition-based firms. These are SMEs whose productions reflect their territory's cultural identity. They are often micro-firms and weak in global markets. Since these firms characterize the European and Italian offer, the scientific challenge is to verify whether there are possible strategic paths, mainly based on interfirm collaboration and dynamic knowledge, that can help them getting higher levels of competitiveness. More specifically, the proposed model aims at understanding if it is possible to overcome these firms’ weaknesses through collaboration in networking perspective.