Alternative value creation strategies in the footwear industry: Exploring the role of production offshoring

Using a value creation perspective we analyse firms¿ strategies in footwear industry in Alicante (Spain). Production offshoring has been the key to enabling successful firms to survive in a sector that social agents have for decades perceived as permanently in crisis. In a period of great changes, local firms have not only fought to survive by maintaining activities with a high added value in the region but have also in some cases based their strategies on maintaining production activities in the same region in order to generate a high value for rapid response to the European Union regional market.