Web and internationalization: new opportunities for Italian Small-Medium Firms?

Abstract

Italian Small Medium Companies (SME) are currently going through a very challenging period. It is important for them to deal with all the complexities that they encounter, like for example: high competition, low domestic demand, little traditional ad efficiency, scarce financial resources, etc. To effectively face some of these problems, firms may find support in the opportunities granted by the web and its tools. The goal of this thesis is to show the importance of the Web for SMEs and what tools they can use in order to increase their brand awareness at a national and international level, to facilitate their internationalization process and to increase exports. In order to show that this is possible and has already been implemented by other companies, a case study on a family company, situated close to Milan called “BERTO From Italy with Love” is presented. Using a questionnaire it was possible to identify this successful firm strategy, the Internet tools it uses and what are the effects of their adoption, the main difficulties it had to face and its future goals. This will show us how the web is a very important tool that all firms and especially SMEs, should use in order to promote their business in global markets.