In the second half of 2013, 389 new network contracts were signed which involved 1.555 companies. These are record numbers obtained on the boost received from Lombardy, Abruzzo, Emilia Romagna and Lazio, which together contribute 1.048 companies. At the end of December 2013, the number of network contracts registered with the Chamber of Commerce rose to 1.353 and the participating companies to 6.435. All these numbers are revealed by the fourth Observatory on Intesa Sanpaolo's business networks.
The regional ranking continues to be led by Lombardy with 1.564 companies in the network, while Emilia Romagna consolidates its second position with 907 companies. In third position is Tuscany with 689 companies involved. Approximately 50% of Italian companies on the network are located in these three regions. Followed by Abruzzo and Veneto, around 500, and Lazio with 408 companies.
The other regions led by Marche (276), Piedmont (250), Puglia (247), Campania (193), Sardinia (183) and Umbria (172) are very distant. The number of subjects in the network in each of the other Italian regions is slightly higher or even lower than 100 units (Basilicata, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Trentino Alto Adige, Sicily, Calabria, Molise and Valle d'Aosta). At the provincial level, Milan stands out with 510 companies involved; followed by Brescia (322), Rome (303), Chieti (224), Modena (218), Florence (216), Bologna (204) and Verona (186).
Service businesses prevail (44,3% of the total) and industry in the strict sense (32,5%) and, within these, professional business services, commerce, ICT, tourism , the engineering industry and the fashion system. The construction and real estate sector follows in importance (14,4%). The agro-food industry closes the ranking which, however, with 566 companies involved, has a greater weight (8,9%) of the network phenomenon than its relevance in the Italian economy.
Within each network, the productive diversification of the enterprises is very high: in fact, the share of networks with enterprises specialized in different productive sectors is equal to 82,5%. Most of the networks are therefore made up of subjects who are complementary to each other, who can pool different skills, drawing from a differentiated pool of sectoral specialisations. Sharing expertise is especially important for smaller businesses. Overall in Italy more than 4 out of 5 companies in the network are micro or small in size. However, the presence of medium and large companies is also good, showing a greater weight than the numerical importance assumed in the Italian economy as a whole (16,1% vs. 0,5% according to the 2011 Istat Census).
Network manufacturing firms have a better competitive positioning than firms not involved in network contracts. The share of manufacturing companies in the network with export activities is higher (about 51,6% vs. 29,8%), quality certificates (28% vs. 15,7%), foreign subsidiaries (15,9% vs. 6%), internationally registered trademarks (16,5% vs. 7,1%), patents requested from the EPO (16,8% vs. 6,4%), environmental certificates (14,3% vs. 5,7%). Entry into the network is then more frequent for those small and very small subjects who already have experience of aggregation.
For all turnover classes, networked companies show a better strategic positioning. For example, 23,6% of micro-enterprises are present abroad with export activities; this percentage stops at 11,6% among micro-enterprises not involved in contracts. The same is true for quality certificates (21,3% vs. 8,5%), environmental certificates (6,0% vs. 1,6%), patents (5,2% vs. 1,9% ), foreign subsidiaries (3,1% vs. 0,7%), internationally registered trademarks (2,6% vs. 1,2%).
The phenomenon of business networks, despite the strong acceleration of the last two years, is still not widespread in Italy, above all because it was born a few years ago: only 0,15% of Italian companies were involved in network contracts at the end of December 2013.
Attachments: Intesa Sanpaolo Observatory on business networks.pdf
