THE IMPACT OF RELATIONAL CAPABILITIES ON THE INTERNATIONALIZATION PROCESS OF INDUSTRIAL SUBCONTRACTORS

This paper sets out to investigate the internationalization process of industrial subcontractors, focusing on subcontractors' capability of linking to the local hubs of internationalized networks and using them as springboards to international markets.The main contribution is to provide deeper insight into the causal relationships between subcontractors' relational capabilities and their degree of internationalization, mediated by the level of subcontractors' involvement with local firms and the networks linked to international markets. While confirming the existence of a strong connection between subcontractors' relational capabilities and the level of subcontractors' involvement with local hubs of international networks, it was found that subcontractors' dependence on multinational enterprises could hamper their expansion into foreign markets. More specifically, the study offers only partial support for the so-called 'springboard' effect, i.e. the role exerted by local hubs of internationalized supply networks in projecting small subcontractors abroad.