This article presents theoretical and empirical elements for a discussion of the reproduction of medium-sized firms as a non-residual configuration of industrial modernization. The 21st century, inheriting the crisis of Fordism, has thus mitigated the traditional dynamism attributed to large scale industrial complexes. Thus, the question that guides our research is the following: how do market demands and meanings such as efficiency, solid initiative and strong institutional relationship networks add to the success of family firms, firmly tied to regional experiences? We analyze three case studies of middle-sized firms in different sectors in territories where Italian migration to Brazil left its traces. The diversity in the way these firms formed and developed provides evidence of the social conditions and characteristics that together qualify the former as having responded to market demands, due to the continuing dialog between generations. While memory provides evidence of the strength of the past, expanding market demands project these firms into the future.
memory; market; middle-sized firms; inter-generational dialog
