Le family businesses invest more in innovation and sustainability. This is certified by an analysis by the Tagliacarne Study Center on the family capitalism carried out on a sample of manufacturing companies with between 5 and 499 employees.
In Italy, family-owned manufacturing enterprises are 108 thousand out of a total of 130 thousand. 62% of them are based in the North, 21% in the Centre, 17% in the South.
According to the study, 18% of family-owned companies invested in 4.0 technologies between 2017 and 2020, against 15% of other production companies. A propensity to innovate that rises to 22% when management is entrusted to an external manager.
Family businesses are also more attentive to green issues, with 27% of them having already implemented it green investments between 2017-2019 against 24% of other entrepreneurial activities.
Even in the period post-Covid-19, the trend does not seem to change: 18% expect to invest in green by 2023 against 12% of non-family businesses.
“Only 9% of these companies make use of external managers to compete on the markets – explains the report – Medium-large companies in particular are more inclined to rely on an external guide (18%). And when that happens, it is the drive towards innovation is stronger: 22% of family businesses led by managers have invested in 4.0 technologies compared to 17% of family businesses but with managers belonging to the family unit. A percentage that rises to 24% in the entrepreneurial realities of the Centre-North”.
“Family businesses are a value for our country and, contrary to what many believe, they represent an important competitive aspect of our entrepreneurial system, especially when accompanied by external management”. This was underlined by the director general of the Centro Studi Tagliacarne, Gaetano Fausto Esposito, who added “but what makes the difference to innovate is above all the ability to network with other entrepreneurs, universities, research centers and local institutions. In companies with family managers, the propensity to invest in 4.0 technologies goes from an average of 17% to 35% in the case of a high level of relationships".
