Cutting Porter's last diamond: competitive and comparative (dis)advantages in the Dutch flower industry. Which lesson for Italian SMEs?

The Dutch are the world's leaders in the ower business despite they seem to lack comparative advantage in the traditional sense. Comparative advantages paid a role in the history of the Dutch ower industry and they still have a role today. Based on a critic of Porter's theories, the investigation suggests that the exploitation of comparative advantages is allowed only to those rms and industries that already possess a competitive advantage, based on technology, logistics infrastructure, innovation and human skills. So that comparative advantages and competitive advantages join themselves in a sort of helix process based on social innovation and collective learning. The Italian ower industry is both less productive, less innovative, and fragmented in a number of small family businesses. The main lesson to the Italian ower industry is that some regional strategies based just on local comparative advantages is not a rewarding option, unless it is reinforced by a clear competitive advantage strategy, technology and innovation based, that is able to make value out of such comparative local advantages and is also able to exploits and take pro t out of comparative advantages wherever they are abroad.