<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The paper presents and discusses the findings of a field research study undertaken in a rural area in the province of Reggio Calabria, in Southern Italy, focused on firms belonging to the agri-food sector, in particular, on the excellent firms. Its objective is to point out how, even in rural and extremely marginal areas, and in unfavourable socio-economic and institutional contexts, it is possible that excellent firms were born and grew, and that they became competitive at the national and global scale. The paper therefore analyses these entrepreneurial case studies in-depth, using a methodologically mixed approach: on the one hand, focusing on their economic performance (quantitative analysis), and, on the other hand, investigating their strategy by means of direct open interviews. The paper concludes by providing “lessons” useful to understand how firms can not only survive, but also can be competitive and expand their business, even if they are located in extremely unfavourable peripheral contexts. This can be achieved by exploiting the strengths of these territories, which, even if few, they do not lack.</p></abstract>

The paper presents and discusses the findings of a field research study undertaken in a rural area in the province of Reggio Calabria, in Southern Italy, focused on firms belonging to the agri-food sector, in particular, on the excellent firms. Its objective is to point out how, even in rural and extremely marginal areas, and in unfavourable socio-economic and institutional contexts, it is possible that excellent firms were born and grew, and that they became competitive at the national and global scale. The paper therefore analyses these entrepreneurial case studies in-depth, using a methodologically mixed approach: on the one hand, focusing on their economic performance (quantitative analysis), and, on the other hand, investigating their strategy by means of direct open interviews. The paper concludes by providing “lessons” useful to understand how firms can not only survive, but also can be competitive and expand their business, even if they are located in extremely unfavourable peripheral contexts. This can be achieved by exploiting the strengths of these territories, which, even if few, they do not lack.

Being Excellent Entrepreneurs in Highly Marginal Areas: The Case of the Agri-Food Sector in the Province of Reggio Calabria

Centre for Research on Regional Economics, Transport and Tourism (CERTeT)

Department of Economics and Political Science

Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria

Agricultural Economics at the Agraria Department

European Countryside

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The paper presents and discusses the findings of a field research study undertaken in a rural area in the province of Reggio Calabria, in Southern Italy,...

Being Excellent Entrepreneurs in Highly Marginal Areas: The Case of the Agri-Food Sector in the Province of Reggio Calabria

Published Online: Apr 04, 2018

Page range: 38 - 57

Received: Apr 18, 2017

Accepted: Jan 30, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2018-0003

Keywords
competitiveness, entrepreneurship, excellence, marginal areas, agri-food sector, peripheral areas, locational disadvantages

© 2018 Dario Musolino et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Being Excellent Entrepreneurs in Highly Marginal Areas: The Case of the Agri-Food Sector in the Province of Reggio Calabria

Published Online: Apr 04, 2018

Page range: 38 - 57

Received: Apr 18, 2017

Accepted: Jan 30, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2018-0003

Keywordscompetitiveness, entrepreneurship, excellence, marginal areas, agri-food sector, peripheral areas, locational disadvantages

© 2018 Dario Musolino et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
competitiveness, entrepreneurship, excellence, marginal areas, agri-food sector, peripheral areas, locational disadvantages