Come difendersi da una crisi di immagine del territorio e del made in Italy: l’esperienza di alcune piccole e medie imprese in Campania

The competitiveness of the territory positively influences the competitiveness of those enterprises able to establish
relationships with the local actors. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are strongly rooted in the territory from
which they draw resources often not available inside the firms. They often tie their international development
strategies on the positive image of their territory and on the value of made in. But what happens when the territory
that was a fertile basis becomes an enemy?
This research poses the hypothesis that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is introduced as an enterpriselevel
strategy to overcome the negative effects produced by the territory and to react to the diminution of value of the
made in, in order to restore the level of competitiveness of the firm. CSR’ s behaviour can be implemented to SMEs
too. For these firms, theory speaks about of a sunken and silent CSR.
The object of this paper is to present CSR as a complementary or alternative option to the competitive
factor of the made in, and to describe a positive relation among made in, CSR and SME’ international
performance.