Abstract

The development of emerging markets is generating a wide range of opportunities for companies willing to sell their products to the emerging markets' consumers. Nonetheless companies, and above all Small and Medium Enterprises, have to face institutional, environmental and cultural barriers and obstacles to successfully operate in these new contexts. Drawing on these premises, the purpose of this article is to investigate whether marketing alliances involving Smes belonging to the same industrial cluster can help them to overcome these obstacles and to obtain more satisfying commercial results. In particular, the alliance «Italian Legwear Shanghai» involving 11 Italian companies belonging to the socks-producing Italian cluster is analyzedin depth. Empirical material collected from the companies taking part in the alliance is presented and analyzed to identify factors leading to the success/failure of such marketing alliances. Finally generalizations of the results are discussed and managerial implications are drawn.