The Strategy of Italian micro-small business to face the current economic difficulties

Abstract: The current economic-financial conditions in Italy are characterized by the financial crisis, decrease in demand, increase in taxation and banking credit restriction. Moreover, this aspects add up to structural problems of the Italian economy, like low level of labor productivity and high public debt. Italian industry is formed mainly by micro and small companies, that are suffering particularly this situation. This research wants to identify successful strategies for micro and small Italian companies to face actual difficulties and compete in these dynamics. To do that, the method chosen is the multiple-case and the qualitative research with semi-structured interviews to key respondents and strategic decision makers of three micro and small Italian companies. Starting from the literature review on strategic subjects, this paper wants to contribute to investigate a range of successful strategies that Italian micro-small companies could adopt to overcome current problems. The findings of this research are that part of the strategic process should be internal to companies, adopting a right size and boundaries, a good corporate culture, a rigorous financial management and a deep innovation’s process, both for process and products. Then, the more successful competitive strategy for Italian small company seems to be a hybrid strategy, mostly balanced on differentiation. Finally, a partial diversification by developing new products or/and new markets is a good strategy to diversify the high risk of the current situation and create new possibilities of success.