Partnerships and business network among tourism enterprises: the case of Italy

Market’s globalization creates the need for partnerships among enterprises. The various relationships and transactions involved are usually described using the concept of network, which is certainly not a recent model in economics. Business networks among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) improve efficiency and competitiveness, mitigating their size disadvantage. Networks are not always naturally established and therefore need to be fostered sometimes. Among networks, formal networks subjected to law, regulations and contracts, are perceived as safer and more reliable from third parties’ perspective. These factors are even more true if applied to Italy. This paper examines tourism entrepreneurship, highlighting the empirical solutions arising from the experience of Italy where law push entrepreneurs to bind themselves to a special kind of formal network: Business Network Contracts. This contract created in Italy and in continuous evolution is a model of aggregation used to bind entrepreneurs to a formal network.