Knowledge sourcing and inter-firm technology transfer. The role of external sources in the Italian motorcycle industry

Growth, new product development, and interfirm knowledge transfer have always drawn the attention of management scholars. Over the last decade, the Japanese model, based on extensive use of external sources of supply, posed a serious threat to the conventional, internal growth process, and some argue that a similar situation can be found in the Italian motorcycle industry, where several firms share the same network of partners to leverage development costs without sacrificing product differentiation. In this paper we will present the case of Malaguti and Engines Engineering, two firms that build their success upon each other.