Abstract

Beginning with an outline of internal migration in Italy between the 1950s and the 1970s, the article aims to articulate a critical reflection on the role played by social capital in the development of Italian small firms. These issues are explored through an ethno-historical analysis of the experiences of a group of migrants from Tramonti, a little town in Southern Italy, whose success in the restaurant business provides the case study at the core of the paper. Since the 1950s, thousands of people have moved from Tramonti to Northern Italy, and many of them have joined the business of pizza restaurants. Although migration from this little town is just a small part of the substantial internal migration which took place in Italy in the second half of the 20th century, this case study allows us to explore some interesting questions pertaining to the study of both migration and small firms. After providing a brief historical description of the migration from Tramonti, the article attempts to explain and understand the success of this group of migrants by focusing on the key factor represented by social capital, while also offering a critical approach to the concept of social capital itself. This historical analysis shows how migratory chains consisting of family, kin and community ties have been transformed into strong social capital of prime importance to the business strategies of the Tramonti pizza-makers. This particular social capital was marked by strong family ties and values and worked through a “segmentary” logic of solidarity and fission. Indeed, this “entrepreneurial familism” was the main factor behind the success of the pizza makers. The case study suggests, then, that familism is not necessarily an obstacle to economic improvement; instead, it is an essential component of the social capital, it can propel business success if it operates within the right social-economic context, like that of Northern Italy between the 1950s and 1970s.