In the first three months of the year, 455 businesses used the Network contract thus giving life to 94 new networks, ie forms of collaboration that allow resources and skills to be pooled with the aim of acquiring greater competitive, productive and commercial strength. This was reported by the third Intesa Sanpaolo – Mediocredito Italiano observatory on business networks.
The total number of contracts registered at the end of March thus rises to 792 with 4.091 companies involved. Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany lead the ranking of the most active regions. In particular, the first two are the architects of the strong acceleration recorded in the last quarter of 2012.
The Intesa Sanpaolo - Mediocredito Italiano study highlights how the network allows companies to make the most of their industrial complementarity. 83% of the networks is made up of companies specialized in different production sectors. Furthermore, 31% are small or even so-called micro enterprises (51,2%), exactly the realities that have the greatest need to increase their ability to innovate, sell, export, create brands and which would hardly succeed if they could count on only on their own strength. Industry in the strict sense and services are the two most represented macro-sectors and account for 76,1% of network businesses; the presence of the construction and real estate supply chain and of agri-food industry companies is also significant.
The study then focuses on the results of the manufacturing sector in 2011: the companies involved in network contracts recorded an increase in turnover of 10,1% against 4,6% of those not in the network and the differential widens further if you look at previous years.
However, in order for business networks to take off, they need specific training and funding. Three were born between 2012 and 2013 Regional laboratories for business networks (Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna), activated by Intesa Sanpaolo with local employers' associations and research bodies, to promote awareness of this tool and facilitate meetings between potential partners. On the financing front, an important opportunity is the funding that the European Investment Bank has made available so that SMEs and "mid-cap" companies can achieve the strategic objectives of the network contract, for which Mediocredito Italiano has approved loans to date for more than 22 million euros.
