SME and Global Industries: Managing the Global Supply Chain in the Consumer Electronic Industry

This research takes place within a broader study, which aims to highlight the evolution strategies of the companies competing within the consumer elec-tronics industry, and the consequent changes that have characterized the mar-ket worldwide. This paper analyzes some management and organizational issues of a me-dium Italian firm (Mivar), which has been producing television sets for almost fifty years. The aim of this paper is to underline not so much the path of Mivar growth, but the gradual loss of competitiveness, which has now led this firm to a position of total dependence on its environment. This could provoke the exit of Mivar from the market. Emphasizing the opportunities offered to companies by the growing inter-nationalization of the business, we highlight, however, that generally the glob-alization of an industrial sector does not imply a consequent internationaliza-tion of the firms operating in it. This can happen especially if the firm suffers for weaknesses due to sub-optimal size and inadequacy of its governance, like in the case of Mivar, where the lack of internationalization of its business causes several problems in managing the global supply chain, therefore com-promising the system of relationships with upstream and downstream compa-nies.