In the wake of the acute phase of the crisis, with international trade literally plummeting in the opening quarters of 2009, it is important to assess the state of Italian exports and the reaction capacity of Italian export companies.
For this reason, Aspen Italia has asked a selection of institutions and research firms to explore the topic more in depth. More in detail, two analyses were carried out: the first is an overall assessment by Istat of the global situation of Italian exports, focusing on the reaction capacity of the different kinds of enterprises; the second is the traditional survey of stand-out enterprises carried out by Intesa Sanpaolo and IMT Alti Studi Lucca, with particular focus on these companies’ export performances, with the support of a database provided by Istat, with the collaboration of Fondazione Edison.
Istat’s analysis highlights how a significant number of Italian enterprises have already restored their exports to pre-crisis levels. Specifically, the best reaction capacity has been shown by small and medium enterprises, as opposed to a more sluggish response by larger companies.
The Intesa Sanpaolo-IMT Lucca analysis found that Italy, against a background of economic recession and ongoing change, with a massive increase in the weight of the emerging countries on total international trade, did well in protecting its shares of global exports. In the past decade, of all the advanced countries, only Germany has performed better. A number of factors contributed: strong ability to customise offer and adapt products to the specific needs of clients; high flexibility and ability to establish new business relations; the extensiveness of the product ranges offered on the foreign markets; entirely or partly preserved production chains; high level of manufacturing skill; a solid and internationalised banking system.
However, the research highlights the need to expand the number of enterprises successfully accessing the international markets, and also found that even the most competitive enterprises suffer from high performance volatility. Evidence of this is contained in export data referred to 2010, which reveal the difficulties being encountered by the larger enterprises in recovering the ground lost during the crisis, including those which had scored the best performances before the recession; in many cases, these entities emerge as being leaders in market niches, and scarcely diversified.
The research laid bare several specific weaknesses which should be promptly tackled. The average size of Italian companies makes expansion abroad a more complex challenge, especially when addressing the large emerging economies. Dimensional growth, while desirable, is not enough in itself to guarantee continuity in performance and success on increasingly complex markets. Therefore, growth in the size of enterprises should be pursed as a prerequisite to be able to compete, but at the same time research and innovation policies in particular should also be to strengthened (in order to differentiate Italian products more strongly and attack higher-added-value market brackets), together with measures designed to offer direct support to activity on the foreign markets.