The Internationalization of Retailers and Manufacturers in the Footwear Industry: Different Approaches in Different Countries

Over the last 40 years, the international footwear market has experienced substantial changes in terms of demand, supply and distribution and this phenomenon involves retailers and manufacturers. In this context the paper analyzes the different ways in which retailers and manufacturing companies have chosen to deal with the distribution policies in the international markets. Moreover the paper aims to highlight the “qualitative level” of internationalization of the analyzed firms in terms of kind of foreign markets entered. Considering the literature about the geographical waves of internationalization it is possible to understand if the footwear retailers and manufacturers have entered only the “traditional” foreign countries or if they are exploring also the new emerging markets. In order to study this topic an empirical research was conducted, on the first hand data was collected from AIDA data base to find the main (in terms of turnover) Italian retailers and manufacturers in the footwear industry, on the other hand a data base was created with the location of direct and franchising stores in foreign countries. We found a limited number of Italian retailers present in foreign markets with direct or franchising sales outlets. Different is the position of industrial firms in which more than 50% developed a process of vertical integration through the use of downward opening flagship stores in Italy and abroad. A further results of the analysis is that the countries representing the traditionally recipients of Italian exports (France, Germany, United States) are not the same in which the larger manufacturing firms focus their direct commercial investment efforts (China, Japan, Russia).