ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes the new concept of "local liabilities" in relation to native and immigrant entrepreneurship. The management and business economics literature has defined several types of liabilities depending on different determining conditions. Stephen Hymer was one of the first scholars to recognize that multinational enterprises face extra costs when doing business in foreign countries compared with local competitors because of their lack of familiarity with local conditions. There is still a debate on the relationship between the costs of doing business abroad and the liability of foreignness. Thus, the textile district in Prato represents a particular case: alongside the original district, a second district has developed consisting of businesses founded by Chinese immigrants: there are no notable connections between the two districts, or subdistricts. Alpha is an emblematic case of fruitful interaction among native and immigrant entrepreneurship within a local context, in a textile district where business relationships between Italian and Chinese owned companies are limited.
