Formal Networks among Tourism Enterprises: Peculiarities of the Italian Solution

The globalization of markets creates the need for partnerships among enterprises. Business aggregations improve efficiency and competitiveness, mitigating SMEs’ size disadvantages. However, networks are not always naturally established and therefore sometimes need to be fostered. Among networks, formal networks subject to law are also perceived as safer and more reliable from third parties’ perspective. These factors find full expression in the Italian social and business scenario. This study examines tourism entrepreneurship, analysing the ‘business network contract’ or Contratto di Rete d’Imprese into this specific economic sector. This contract created in Italy and in continuous evolution is a model of formal aggregation used to bind entrepreneurs to a formal network.