Entrepreneurship: Learning it in an Industrial District Is no Longer Enough
THE HOLDER OF THE RODOLFO DEBENEDETTI CHAIR IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP, FABIANO SCHIVARDI, ANALYZED THE LEARNING OF ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS IN ITALY IN THE LECTIO INAUGURALIS FOR THE ACADEMIC CHAIR FUNDED WITH A PERSONAL DONATION BY CARLO DE BENEDETTIEntrepreneurship can be learned, but the methods for learning it traditionally used by Italian entrepreneurs are no longer sufficient in a world where business success depends more on the capacity to innovate than the ability to contain costs. A more structured training and the acquisition of managerial skills from the outside could be the solutions to the crisis of growth in recent years. This, in a nutshell, the argument presented this afternoon at the Lectio Inauguralis of Rodolfo Debenedetti Chair in Entrepreneurship by Fabiano Schivardi, professor at Bocconi and holder of the Chair.
The Rodolfo Debenedetti Chair in Entrepreneurship was established thanks to a personal donation of 3 million euro by Carlo De Benedetti, with the intention to honor the memory of his father Rodolfo. It is a dedicated and permanent chair, or a chair whose work is funded by the proceeds of an endowment fund, donated for charitable purposes by an individual or a business and invested by the University. "With this initiative in memory of my father," said De Benedetti at the presentation of the Chair, "I would like to work with Università Bocconi to help young people who, despite all the negativity, want to give it a try. I am deeply convinced that the creation of entrepreneurship is the result of a dense web of values, family education, personal aspirations, and that the defining principle behind all of these variables is ultimately represented by education and training. "
"With the commitment on strategic issues such as entrepreneurship, which will now be enhanced in the name of Rodolfo Debenedetti and thanks to the foresight of Carlo De Benedetti," said the president of Bocconi, Mario Monti, the "Bocconi aims to contribute more to a positive evolution of Italian and European society, both with research that is rigorous and open to reality, and with the formation of a responsible managerial class able to cope, in private and in public, the challenges of growth and employment ".
The analysis of the Italian situation presented by Schivardi shows that those most likely to become good entrepreneurs are individuals who, around the important age of 18, are immersed in an environment of high entrepreneurial density, typically an industrial district. Italy, with its widespread use of industrial districts, would seem to be a natural cradle for good entrepreneurs, and instead growth over the past 20 years has been disappointing.
Schivardi explains that the structure of the Italian productive system, characterized by a multitude of small and family-run businesses, can find success due to cost advantages in sectors with limited technological content. And it is the managerial skills necessary to achieve such an advantage that young people learn by living in areas with high entrepreneurial density. However, in globalized markets, this cost advantage is no longer sustainable, and entrepreneurial success requires a broader skill set which includes innovation, research and development, marketing and much more.
New skills, said Schivardi, can be learned along two complementary paths: a more structured training of the entrepreneur or the acquisition of these skills from the outside, through the expansion of the management team beyond the family circle, typically as a result of venture capital financing.
Italy, in fact, is more or less aligned with the rest of Europe in terms of the percentage of family-controlled firms (Italy at 85.6%, with France at 80% and Germany at 89.8%) and is level with Germany in terms of the percentage of family businesses with a family member as CEO (83.9% Italy, 84.5% Germany). Italy is, however, characterized by an unmatched proportion of firms in which the entire executive group is part of the family (Italy 66.3%, Spain 35.5% and Germany 28%).
Ownership and Control of Firms in Europe
| Family owned (%) | Family | firms only | |
| Family CEO | All management | ||
| within the family | |||
| France | 80.0 | 62.2 | 25.8 |
| Germany | 89.8 | 84.5 | 28.0 |
| Italy | 85.6 | 83.9 | 66.3 |
| Spain | 83.0 | 79.6 | 35.5 |
| UK | 80.5 | 70.8 | 10.4 |
Source: Bankitalia
by Fabio Todesco
Translated by Richard Greenslade
