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Business Development Service Centres in Italy. an Empirical Analysis of Three Regional Experiences: Emilia Romagna, Lombardia and Veneto

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Business Development Service Centres in Italy. an Empirical Analysis of Three Regional Experiences: Emilia Romagna, Lombardia and Veneto 130 6(5,( desarrollo productivo Business development service centres in Italy. An empirical analysis of three regional experiences: Emilia Romagna, Lombardia and Veneto Carlo Pietrobelli Roberta Rabelloti Restructuring and Competitiveness Network Industrial and Technological Development Unit Division of Production, Productivity and Management Santiago, Chile, September, 2002 This document was prepared by Carlo Pietrobelli of the University of Rome III, Law School, Italy and Roberta Rabellotti, Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy, who acts as consultant to the Industrial and Technological Development Unit of ECLAC, with the assistance of Tommaso Ciarli, in the context of the project on Small and medium-sized industrial enterprises in Latin America which is financed by the Government of Italy. The views expressed in this document, which has been distributed without formal editing, are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Organization. United Nations Publication LC/L.1781-P ISBN: 92-1-121368-1 ISSN printed version: 1020-5179 ISSN online version: 1680-8754 Copyright © United Nations, September 2002. All rights reserved Sales No.: E.02.II.G.96 Printed in United Nations, Santiago, Chile Applications for the right to reproduce this work are welcomed and should be sent to the Secretary of the Publications Board, United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y. 10017, U.S.A. Member States and their governmental institutions may reproduce this work without prior authorization, but are requested to mention the source and inform the United Nations of such reproduction. CEPAL - SERIE Desarrollo productivo N° 130 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................... 7 I. Introduction..................................................................... 9 II. Business Development Service (BDS) Centres in Italy .................................................................................... 13 III. The methodology .................................................................. 17 IV. The three regions.................................................................. 19 A. Emilia Romagna................................................................. 21 B. Lombardia .......................................................................... 23 C. Veneto................................................................................ 24 V. The survey .............................................................................. 27 A. The creation of BDS centres.............................................. 28 B. The supply of services ....................................................... 33 C. The clients.......................................................................... 43 D. The turnover....................................................................... 45 E. Internal organisation .......................................................... 47 F. External linkages................................................................ 49 G. Self-evaluation ................................................................... 53 H. A summary of the main survey findings ............................ 55 VI. An evaluation of BDS Centres........................................... 57 VII. Conclusions and implications for policies .................... 65 A. Lessons learned from the analysis of the Italian experience .......................................................................... 65 B. Implications for Latin America.......................................... 67 Bibliography................................................................................... 71 Appendix .................................................................................... 75 Serie Desarrollo productivo: issues published.................... 81 3 Business development service centres in Italy… Tables Table 2.1 BDS Centres supplying technological services...........................................................15 Table 4.1 Industrial and total employment, regions and Italy, 1998...........................................20 Table 4.2 Manufacturing Employment, by firm-size (Regions and Italy, 1996) ........................20 Table 4.3 Exports by Sector, Regions and Italy, 1998 ................................................................20 Table 4.4 Number of industrial districts according to different definitions................................21 Table 4.5 BDS centres in Lombardia promoted by Law 33 (1981) ...........................................23 Table 5.1 Geographical distribution of the sample .....................................................................28 Table 5.2 Sector-specialisation of the sample.............................................................................28 Table 5.3 Location inside or outside districts .............................................................................28 Table 5.4 Year of creation...........................................................................................................29 Table 5.5 Main initiative .............................................................................................................29 Table 5.6 Main initiative per region............................................................................................29 Table 5.7 Main initiative per sector-specificity of centres..........................................................31 Table 5.8 Equity distribution per main initiative ........................................................................32 Table 5.9 Equity distribution per type of centres........................................................................32 Table 5.10 Equity distribution per region .....................................................................................32 Table 5.11 Classes of services.......................................................................................................33 Table 5.12 Number of services......................................................................................................34 Table 5.13 Number of centres supplying each service .................................................................34 Table 5.14 The most profitable class of services ..........................................................................35 Table 5.15 Main vocation of centres and per sector specialisation...............................................35 Table 5.16 Main vocation of centres per region............................................................................40 Table 5.17 Main vocation of centres per year of creation.............................................................40 Table 5.18 Main vocation of centres per main initiative...............................................................41 Table 5.19 Main vocation of centres per equity distribution ........................................................41 Table 5.20 Ways to identify customers’ needs..............................................................................41 Table 5.21 How BDS Centres set their prices...............................................................................42 Table 5.22 Price discrimination.....................................................................................................42 Table 5.23 Reasons for price subsidisation in the centres’ perception .........................................42 Table 5.24 Centre’s certification...................................................................................................42 Table 5.25 Perceived need of future certification of the centre ....................................................43 Table 5.26 Number of customers ..................................................................................................43 Table 5.27 Main vocation of centres: mean, minimum and maximum number of customers ......44 Table 5.28 Main location of customers.........................................................................................44 Table 5.29 Areas of collaboration with customers........................................................................45 Table 5.30 Strategies of promotion of BDSC activities................................................................45 Table 5.31 BDS centres’ turnover.................................................................................................46 Table 5.32 Turnover composition: public subsidy larger than 50% of sales ................................46 Table 5.33 Grants (subsidy) allocation .........................................................................................46 Table 5.34 Sale of services larger than RI WRWDO WXUQRYHU...................................................47 Table 5.35 Average turnover per main vocation...........................................................................47 Table 5.36 Number of employees..................................................................................................48 Table 5.37 Share of technicians and employees with a university degree....................................48 Table 5.38 Share of technicians per main vocation.......................................................................48 Table 5.39 Share of employees with a university degree per main vocation................................49 Table 5.40 Training activities for employees ...............................................................................49 Table 5.41
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