Italy’s main economic newspaper – Il Sole 24 Ore – recently dusted off a popular Italian figurative adage, saying that the region of Lombardy continues being the “nation’s locomotive” when it comes to new business generation. Today’s entrepreneurial environment is, however, more complex than ever. With galloping globalization, fast-paced technological advancements and the disruptive effects of an unprecedented sanitary crisis, new agile enterprises are crucial in the processes of innovation and jobs generation, and in solving technical, social, and environmental issues. This work analyzes a cross-section of 6,609 companies that were founded during the last decade in Lombardy in relation to four different variables: number of employees, turnover, pre-tax income and solvency ratio. These have been calculated as growth indicators between the first and fifth years of the companies’ business life and then observed against different contextual and internal factors (industry, year of foundation, the Covid-19 pandemic, level of digitalization etc.) to assess the sample profile in terms of growth and solidity. Findings show that, in general, most companies have registered either stagnant or negative performances for the observed variables, especially those founded in 2015 and 2016, that lived their fifth year during the pandemic. Among the sectors that suffered the most there are the transportation and logistics one and the manufacturing industry. On the bright side, comforting signs have been observed in the hospitality sector, with its “resilient growth”, in the innovation capacity of more traditional industries and in the agile evolution of business services.
Il principale quotidiano economico italiano - Il Sole 24 Ore - ha recentemente rispolverato un noto detto popolare, affermando che la regione Lombardia, quando si tratta di generare nuove imprese, continua ad essere la "locomotiva della nazione". Il contesto imprenditoriale odierno è tuttavia più complesso che mai. Con la globalizzazione galoppante, i rapidi progressi tecnologici e gli effetti dirompenti di una crisi sanitaria senza precedenti, le nuove imprese giocano un ruolo cruciale nei processi di innovazione e generazione di posti di lavoro e nella soluzione di problemi tecnici, sociali e ambientali. Questo studio analizza un campione di 6.609 imprese nate nell'ultimo decennio in Lombardia in relazione a quattro diverse variabili: numero di dipendenti, fatturato, reddito ante imposte e indice di solvibilità. Tali variabili sono calcolate come indicatori di crescita tra il primo e il quinto anno di vita delle aziende e poi osservate in relazione a diversi fattori interni e di contesto (settore, anno di fondazione, pandemia di Covid-19, livello di digitalizzazione, ecc.) allo scopo di analizzare il campione in termini di solidità e livello di crescita. I risultati ottenuti mostrano che, in generale, la maggior parte delle aziende ha registrato performance stagnanti o negative per le variabili osservate, soprattutto quelle fondate nel 2015 e 2016, che hanno vissuto il loro quinto anno durante la pandemia. Tra i settori che hanno sofferto maggiormente si osservano quello dei trasporti e della logistica e l'industria manifatturiera. Guardando il lato positivo, sono stati osservati segnali confortanti nel settore dell'hospitality, che dimostra una sorta di "crescita resiliente", nella capacità di innovazione delle industrie più tradizionali e nell'agile evoluzione dei servizi alle imprese.
CRESCITA E SOLIDITÀ DELLE STARTUP E DELLE PMI NEGLI ULTIMI DIECI ANNI IN LOMBARDIA
ALTROCCHI, ALESSANDRO
2021/2022
Abstract
Italy’s main economic newspaper – Il Sole 24 Ore – recently dusted off a popular Italian figurative adage, saying that the region of Lombardy continues being the “nation’s locomotive” when it comes to new business generation. Today’s entrepreneurial environment is, however, more complex than ever. With galloping globalization, fast-paced technological advancements and the disruptive effects of an unprecedented sanitary crisis, new agile enterprises are crucial in the processes of innovation and jobs generation, and in solving technical, social, and environmental issues. This work analyzes a cross-section of 6,609 companies that were founded during the last decade in Lombardy in relation to four different variables: number of employees, turnover, pre-tax income and solvency ratio. These have been calculated as growth indicators between the first and fifth years of the companies’ business life and then observed against different contextual and internal factors (industry, year of foundation, the Covid-19 pandemic, level of digitalization etc.) to assess the sample profile in terms of growth and solidity. Findings show that, in general, most companies have registered either stagnant or negative performances for the observed variables, especially those founded in 2015 and 2016, that lived their fifth year during the pandemic. Among the sectors that suffered the most there are the transportation and logistics one and the manufacturing industry. On the bright side, comforting signs have been observed in the hospitality sector, with its “resilient growth”, in the innovation capacity of more traditional industries and in the agile evolution of business services.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/2290