Donato Iacobucci

The Growth of Business Groups by Habitual Entrepreneurs: The Role of Entrepreneurial Teams

This article reports the analysis of case studies of portfolio entrepreneurs that suggests that one of the main reasons for the formation and expansion of business groups is the need to create an entrepreneurial team, which is achieved by giving minority shares in the new ventures to others, mainly former employees. This enhances entrepreneurs‘ ability to grow and diversify the businesses under their control without compromising their ownership control of the overall business group. The article identifies and discusses the different types of entrepreneurial teams developed by portfolio entrepreneurs: joint ventures with established entrepreneurs, employee involvement, and intrapreneurship. The latter two types were specifically interesting in studying situations where there was a dominant entrepreneur and associate entrepreneurs. The article enhances the theoretical and empirical understanding of how growth is achieved in the small firms sector through business group formation, and sheds insights on how entrepreneurial team dynamics operate in multiple business contexts.

Agglomeration, Related Variety, and Vertical Integration

Abstract Several recent studies have investigated the relationship between the geographic concentration of production and vertical integration, based on the hypothesis that the spatial agglomeration of firms in the same industry facilitates input procurement, thereby reducing the degree of vertical integration. This article contributes to this debate in two ways: first, we focus on interindustry vertical integration, and second, we consider the effects on vertical integration of unrelated and vertically related variety at the local level. The latter was measured using information from input-output tables and captured the opportunities for outsourcing within the local system. A data set of 24,663 Italian business groups in 2001 was used to estimate Tobit models to investigate the influence of vertically related variety and other agglomeration forces on the degree of vertical integration of groups. We found that vertical integration is influenced by industry specialization at the local level and that higher vertically related variety reduces the need for firms to integrate activities, since they have more opportunities to acquire intermediate goods and services within the local system. We analyze the manufacturing and different macroareas and show that this relationship is also influenced by technology and differences in the organization of economic activities at the local level.

Explaining business groups started by habitual entrepreneurs in the Italian manufacturing sector

The technical (plant) and legal (company) units normally used in official statistics do not take into consideration the phenomenon of business groups: i.e. sets of companies controlled by the same entrepreneur. The main aims of this paper are to assess the presence of such groups in the Italian small firm manufacturing sector and to examine the causes of their formation. Two data sets are used: the first is a representative sample of Italian manufacturing firms while the second is a small sample of groups localized in the Region of the Marches. They show that groups are widely present among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Starting from the premise that the group is the result of the expansion of activities controlled by the same entrepreneur, this paper reports a first attempt to discriminate among three alternative propositions regarding the causes of such growth and the reasons for the adoption of the group form: (1) as the result of the firms growth policy; (2) as the result of entrepreneurial dynamics; and (3) as the result of the capital accumulation process on the part of the entrepreneur or his/her family. The empirical analysis on the whole favours the first hypothesis.

Undergraduate Students as a Source of Potential Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Study between Italy and Argentina

There is a growing consensus that in the “information society” education is one of the key factors for the emergence of new firms and their development prospects. In this context, new ventures set up by graduates are expected to play a critical role especially for the emergence of knowledge and technology-based firms. The main aim of the paper is to analyze the influence of different contexts developed and developing countries on: a) the image that students have about entrepreneurs; b) the influence of social background on the motivation to become an entrepreneur; c) the perception about what positive or negative factors affect the creation of new ventures. The countries analyzed are Argentina (San Andrés University) and Italy (Università Politecnica delle Marche). Overall there are more similarities than differences between Argentinian and Italian students in their perception of entrepreneurship and in their attitude to setting up their own firm. However the social background of the students plays a major role. Although this can be considered a preliminary study, it offers interesting indications for the design of entrepreneurship programs for university students.

Designing and Implementing a Smart Specialisation Strategy at Regional Level: Some Open Questions

The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the theoretical underpinnings and implementation problems of the RIS3. The analysis is carried out by reviewing the available literature on RIS3 and the proposals of 36 EU regions. The RIS3 approach requires the concentration of R&D efforts in a few domains. It requires a variable mix between research and innovation policy according to the region’s innovative capability. The paper discusses the theoretical and practical issues arising when trying to identify links between technological domains within the same regions and between different regions. The paper also questions the emphasis of the RIS3 on the bottom-up approach given that the design of a ‘strategy’ must necessarily rely, at least at the beginning, on a topdown approach. Suggestions are made on how to improve the design and implementation of the RIS3.

Fostering entrepreneurship in academic spin-offs

Academic spin-offs are new companies that evolve out from universities as a result of the process of technology transfer from research to commercialisation of new products or services. This paper analyses the experience of Italian spin-offs, from their first introduction in 1999, with specific regard to the following aspects: the early growth, the governance structure and the entrepreneurial orientation. The empirical analysis refers to a sample of 160 spin-offs set up between 2000 and 2005. Quantitative analysis is based on annual reports after two, four and six years from set up. Quantitative data are supplemented with qualitative information collected from direct interview with owners and managers of spin-offs. The paper highlights the difficulties of most spin-offs in transforming the initial idea in a sustainable business. This is the result, among other things, of the lack of entrepreneurial orientation by the researchers promoting and managing the spin-offs.

Entrepreneurship education in Italian universities: trend, situation and opportunities

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the present situation and recent evolution in entrepreneurship courses and curricula in Italian universities. The analysis is based on a census of entrepreneurship courses and curricula run by Italian universities in 2004 and 2010. Entrepreneurship education in Italian universities is in its early development. Up to 2004 only a few universities had courses dedicated to entrepreneurship and the majority of them dealt with the development of the business plan. This situation has only slightly improved in the following years. Courses and curricula are mostly within business schools while very few exist in engineering and science schools. This situation contrasts with the need for entrepreneurship education in the Italian economy. Given the importance of traditional sectors in Italian industry we need to stimulate start-up in high-tech sectors: the development of entrepreneurship courses in engineering and in other science curricula could play an important role in this sense. At the same time we need to favor the growth process of small firms; this requires people who are able to play an entrepreneurial role in established firms.

Do agglomeration and technology affect vertical integration? Evidence from Italian business groups

Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of technology and spatial agglomeration in decisions about vertical integration. It starts from the hypothesis that the business group, defined as a set of firms under common ownership and control, is the appropriate unit to delimit the firm’s boundary. We use information drawn from input–output tables to detect the presence of positive inter‐industry exchanges and whether or not activities in a group are vertically related. Accounting for endogeneity problems, we estimate Probit and Linear Probability models to investigate the role of technology and spatial agglomeration on vertical integration decisions empirically. Consistent with property rights theory, our results show that the technology intensity of acquirers matters for backward integration choices and, moreover, that agglomeration plays a role in vertical integration only when it operates jointly with technology.

Business groups and the boundaries of the firm

This paper aims to show that the business group – i.e. the set of firms under common ownership and control – is the most appropriate unit to study the behavior and organization of firms and define their boundaries. Particular emphasis is given to notions such as unitary direction – i.e. the influence over strategic decisions – and administrative co-ordination which allow owners to exercise supervision and authority over the controlled companies.

Groups of small and medium-sized firms in industrial districts in Italy

Literature on industrial districts has emphasised the’ systemic’ dimension of such productive organisation. Two ‘levels’ have drawn the attention of scholars: i) the ‘interfirm network’, i.e. the set of firms exchanging goods and services within a production chain (Staber, 2001; Whitford, 2001); ii) the ‘local system’, which is composed not only of firms located in a specific area but also of the social and political institutions that characterise the area1.