ABSTRACT
The term “liability” refers to any condition that puts an enterprise at a disadvantage by reducing its competitiveness in the global value chain. The concept has been amply addressed both in international business studies (liability of foreignness, liability of outsidership) and in studies on the age and size of firms as determining the conditions for success or failure (liability of newness and liability of smallness). Based on study of the relation between Chinese immigrant and native entrepreneurship in the textile and apparel area of Prato, this chapter proposes the new concept of “local liabilities” regarding the problems associated with the separation between the two communities in a cluster of originally district-based enterprises - a phenomenon observed during the development of immigrant entrepreneurship. Methodologically, the study is mainly conceptual, though it is based on a literature review and long-term empirical research on Chinese immigrant entrepreneurship in the Prato apparel industry.
