identikit of the new “made in Italy” entrepreneurs – Corriere.it

2022 has just ended, which saw the protagonism of the Italian manufacturing industry confirmed – proudly claimed by President Carlo Bonomi also in his end-of-year interview with Messaggero – but worries for 2023 are not linked only to exogenous factors, from risks of recession to the redefinition of globalization, but also to reasons that we could define as endogenous. And which in some way refer to the difficulties of having the same entrepreneurial vocation as a replacement. Already in the recent past statistical works edited by Infocamere had underlined both the aging of the entrepreneurial landscape and some gaps that are opening up in the age groups (the number of 50-year-olds who do business is significantly decreasing). It is therefore a question of changing the paradigm and not remaining tied to the scheme of what we could call a “substitution between equals”, or rather an illusory rotation of linear business operators, without jolts.
Having to rethink the theme of turnover, perhaps even the same Confindustria tradition which provides for a special organizational container for Young Entrepreneurs, understood in most cases as children of the current captains of industry, should be modernized.

The investigation

And the input in this direction comes once again from a survey by Unioncamere-Infocamere. With a slogan we could define it as the turning point of diversity, but let’s hear what the authors say. «We are speaking – the researchers explain – of women’s businesses which alone account for 1.3 million units, of youth companies equal to 512 thousand, of those led by foreigners at birth or 648 thousand and of innovative startups almost 15 thousand. Four distinct universes — only partially overlapping with each other — each of which is the bearer of its own dynamics and instances. Which, however, added together, draw a perimeter that touches on 2 million realities, about a third of all Italian companies ». In the three-year period straddling the pandemic crisis, the parables of these various segments of entrepreneurship have drawn trajectories that can help focus on the assets on which local production systems can count in the coming years. In short, the new entrepreneurial subjectivity does not seem destined to remain “lateral”, but rather destined to interact both with the history of our manufacturing average (the districts) and with the evolution of the supply chains which have been the great response in terms of flexibility and industrial culture that the Italian system gave to the Great Crisis that began in 2008. “However, those in charge of company policies must be aware of these changes in order to be able to design targeted interventions both in terms of cohesion and the reduction of existing gaps” claims the Unioncamere study. The research data was obtained by comparing the photos taken from the Business Register of the Chambers of Commerce between September 2019 and September 2022.

The categories

Let’s start with the young people. The first thing that strikes us is the high rate of entrepreneurship in the southern regions, at least as regards the stock. In fact, compared to the 73,500 companies in Lombardy, 67,700 from Campania, 48,000 from Sicily and 37,600 from Puglia stand out. For purposes of comparison, dynamic regions such as Veneto or Emilia-Romagna remain below these levels and fluctuate between 31,000 and 33,000 each. In absolute terms – and this is the second consideration – in three years 36 thousand youth companies have been lost throughout the national territory and the South has paid beyond its proportions. The researchers comment: “However, if we analyze the flows from the stock, a central-southern issue emerges which originates in the emigration of young brains towards more attractive destinations”. A movement that finds its most consistent point of arrival in the North, initially for study reasons and subsequently to give life to a business idea. “Alongside this phenomenon, the effect of possible distortions linked to welfare support policies, starting from the basic income up to refreshments, remains to be investigated”. That would act as a brake on the development of new entrepreneurship. Let’s move on to women’s businesses. In terms of stock, there are four regions that stand out: in order Lombardy, Lazio, Campania and Sicily in a range that goes from 182,000 to 117,000 units. Overall, pink companies are 22.2% of the national total and in the three-year period 2019-22 they grew, albeit slightly (1,700 units). But if we move on to the dynamics of the territory many differences emerge, Lombardy for example is growing like Campania and Sicily, while Lazio is falling back. Emilia-Romagna, despite having a stock that is close to one hundred thousand, like Veneto, does not shine in terms of flows. According to the researchers, much depends on the favorable/unfavorable conditions that have materialized in the various local systems in the form of regional incentives or projects based on European resources and the most relevant trend is that of a certain decline in Central Italy.
Foreign companies. The primacy of Lombardy is very clear in this case on stock numbers (about 125,000) and to find the second region we need to go down to 81,000 in Lazio and 61,000 in Tuscany (data strongly influenced by Chinese dynamism in the textile-clothing sector). But the fact that catches the eye is the resilience to the crisis. Despite the pandemic, in three years the balance is positive for around 35,000 businesses nationwide and significant advances have been recorded in Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont. The only two regions bucking the trend are Marche and Lazio. It would be interesting to have the details of the sectors chosen by these companies and some more data in terms of added value and productivity in order to be able to make more demanding judgments, but in the meantime it is only worth saying that this is a phenomenon largely underestimated by the media and by industrial analysts. Foreigners’ businesses are considered peripheral, but is that really the case?

The innovation

The innovation sector closes the overview of diversity entrepreneurship. In 2022, startups defined as innovative amount to a total of 14,000 compared to 4,000 three years earlier. In this case too, Lombardy largely leads the ranking, probably also due to the strength of its university system. The performance of Campania is striking, surpassing both Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, whose innovation potential does not seem adequately exploited, at least as far as it appears in these statistics. The researchers comment on a more general positive trend in the South: «If it is true that the low starting value of the startup stock in the South weighs heavily, the fact cannot escape the fact that in conditions of greater attractiveness of the local training system and a stronger fabric of entrepreneurial relationships, this performance could have taken on even more encouraging contours». Also in this case it would be of absolute interest to know the data on the number of startups born in a university context, perhaps with the direct involvement of teachers, we could obtain some more details on the possibility that the turnover we mentioned above is not «among equals » as in the district tradition, but sees new figures as protagonists such as, precisely, foreigners, women, young people and university professors. Knowing however – but the theme deserves a dedicated space – that the replacement must be accompanied by a shot of industrial culture. “The solitary hero-entrepreneur is no longer enough, a vision of the system is needed,” wrote Paolo Bricco in the Sole 24 Ore. And one can only agree.