ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. This contribution focuses on international sourcing as an entrepreneurial act and aims at demonstrating that it is actually at the core of internationalization processes of small firms, both established and international new ventures. Another issue of this research is to understand how these firms, characterized typically by scarce financial and managerial resources, can engage in managing international value chains and not only being the passive agent of subcontracting agreements. The breadth of internationals sourcing activities and the nature of the ties established under these agreements is investigated through an empirical survey on 150 Italian SMEs, comparing early with late internationalizing ones. doi:10.1300/J037v16n01_08 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: < https://www.HaworthPress.com > © 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
