Fernanda Ricotta

Owner‐Management, Firm Age, and Productivity in Italian Family Firms

Using total factor productivity as a measure of corporate performance, we find that Italian family‐run firms are less productive than firms run by outside managers and the result is robust to potential endogeneity of management regime. This difference tends to vanish when the age of the firms is taken into account. Also, when considering family‐owned firms only, there is no difference in performance between outside managers and family managers.

Firm heterogeneity in productivity across Europe: evidence from multilevel models

This paper analyses the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) heterogeneity of a sample of manufacturing firms operating in seven EU countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the UK). TFP data refer to 2008. The empirical setting is based on the multilevel modeling which provides two main results. Firstly, we show that TFP heterogeneity is largely due to firm-specific features (85% of TFP variability in the empty model). Interestingly, we find that some key-drivers of firm performance (size, family management, group membership, innovations and human capital) are significantly related to TFP, but do not, on the whole, absorb much of firm TFP variance, implying that differences in productivity are due to notable yet unobservable firm characteristics. Secondly, as far the role of localization is concerned, we demonstrate that the country effect is more influential than region effect in explaining individual productivity. Net of the country effect, the localization in different European regions explains about 5% of TFP firm heterogeneity. When considering the case of three individual countries, France, Italy and Spain, location in different regions explains 5.3% of TFP heterogeneity in Italy, while this proportion is lower (3.6%) in France and higher (9.9%) in Spain.

Firm heterogeneity in TFP, sectoral innovation and location. Evidence from Italy

Sectoral and territorial specificities affect a firm’s capabilities of being productive. While there is a wide consensus on this, a quantitative measure of these effects has been lacking. To this end, we combine a data-set of Italian firms with some meso regional and sectoral variables and apply a cross-classified model that allows for a clear distinction between firm, region-specific and sector-specific effects. After observing a marked TFP heterogeneity across firms, the paper addresses the issue of understanding how much differences in firms’ productivity depend on regional localisation and sector specificities. Results refer to 2004–2006 and have three aspects. First, they confirm that the main source of firm variety is mostly due to differences revealed at individual level. Secondly, we find that the sector is more important than location in explaining firms’ TFP. Lastly, the results show that firm TFP increases when it belongs to more innovative sectors. Similarly, companies get benefits from belonging to sectors where there is a high proportion of firms using R&D public support and a high propensity to collaborate in innovative projects.

Un’analisi territoriale della produttività totale dei fattori in Italia

Questo lavoro presenta un’analisi territoriale della produttivita totale dei fattori (PTF) in Italia dal 1998 al 2006, utilizzando dati di impresa. L’aspetto territoriale e approfondito scomponendo la PTF negli effetti within-firms e between-firms, calcolati per l’intero campione e per sottogruppi di imprese secondo l’appartenenza settoriale, il contenuto innovativo delle produzioni e la loro internazionalizzazione. I risultati sono tre. Il primo conferma il ruolo della PTF quale fattore esplicativo dell’andamento della produttivita del lavoro. Il secondo indica l’avvio di un ammodernamento del sistema industriale che ha consentito di ridurre gli effetti del rallentamento della produttivita. Infine, questo processo di ristrutturazione ha avuto esiti differenti nelle diverse aree del paese, senza modificare il dualismo tecnologico dell’economia italiana.

Exploring The Relationship Between University And Innovation: Evidence From The Italian Food Industry

ABSTRACT This study provides empirical evidence on the role of universities’ technological transfer (TT) activities in the Italian manufacturing sector, with particular attention to the food industry. Using the UniCredit-Capitalia database (2008) for firms and data from the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) to obtain the university TT indicator, we estimate a probit model to assess the effect of universities’ TT activities on a firm’s likelihood to innovate. The role of proximity in knowledge spillovers from TT activities is also investigated. Results show that university TT activities seem to stimulate food industry firms innovation and the impact appears significantly higher than for the manufacturing sector. Moreover, the effect of TT activities on innovation appears to be geographically bounded. As regards policy implications, this study provides two insights which may help promote innovation in the food sector. First, the factors that influence innovative capability in the food sector are different from those in other sectors, suggesting the need for sector specific instruments for promoting innovation. Second, science is important in the food industry and this raises questions about the policy of mainly considering high-tech industries when promoting a closer relationship between firms and universities.