The SMEs Performance by the New Technologies Application: The Case of Olive-Oil in Puglia

Since the facility for exchanging information and sharing knowledge increases both the competitiveness of companies and worker productivity, the opportunities that information and communication technology (ICT) offers for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cannot be neglected. From the SMEs, operating in traditional sectors, generally located in the South, we have selected those in the olive-oil sector, to measure the use of ICT and, in particularly, the development of E-commerce. The aim of this paper is to show the application and development of Internet and E-Commerce in the olive-oil sector of Puglia and to verify if companies are creating new network-like relations which can from a local productive system. In the first part theoretical aspects of competitive advantages from the New Technologies adoption are analyzed; in the second the results of a descriptive analysis based on a data-set of information at the firm level built up integrating interviews and balance sheets are discussed.